John McDonald's Travis McGee comes to life when one of his McGee novels Darker Than Amber comes to the big screen. Rod Taylor essays the role of the salvage beachcomber who does an occasional turn as a detective.
What Taylor attempts to salvage here is Suzy Kendall who would like very much to get away from William Smith who on the big screen and small is usually one evil dude.
Kendall is the come-on, one of many women Smith uses as a come-on in a cruise ship badger game racket. How evil this guy we only find out toward the end of the film.
Taylor makes a fine private detective and Theodore Bikel is good as the intellectual sidekick Taylor has and apparently needs to keep him centered on what's good in life. But the one you won't forget is William Smith. His bleached blond appearance for this film only accentuates the evil in a truly evil man. The final scene is a fight with Taylor and Smith and about 15 others get in the way. It ranks up there with The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre for realism.
Definitely for fans of the principal players.
What Taylor attempts to salvage here is Suzy Kendall who would like very much to get away from William Smith who on the big screen and small is usually one evil dude.
Kendall is the come-on, one of many women Smith uses as a come-on in a cruise ship badger game racket. How evil this guy we only find out toward the end of the film.
Taylor makes a fine private detective and Theodore Bikel is good as the intellectual sidekick Taylor has and apparently needs to keep him centered on what's good in life. But the one you won't forget is William Smith. His bleached blond appearance for this film only accentuates the evil in a truly evil man. The final scene is a fight with Taylor and Smith and about 15 others get in the way. It ranks up there with The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre for realism.
Definitely for fans of the principal players.