The French writer and director Alain Robbe-Grillet on They Caught the Ferry, "Many of Dreyer’s films have filled me with enthusiasm. The one that gripped me most, the one I remember most clearly and whose influence has undoubtedly marked me most, is a short film, made for use in driving safety propaganda, that in French is called, 'Ils n’ont pas pris le bac' (They Caught the Ferry). I don’t know if Dreyer himself considers this short masterpiece to be significant. To me at the time was perhaps a revelation of what imaginary realism could be in film (and in the novel)" (Berlingske Tidende, 12 Jan. 1964).
In 2007, the Danish director Christina Rosendahl based a music video, for Phonovectra’s song Too Young to Die, on Dreyer’s film.