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Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I really wish Darker than Amber had done better at the box office. I would have loved to have seen a whole string of testosterone infused Travis McGee films with Rod Taylor as McGee and Theodore Bikel as sidekick Meyer. I know there are a slew of detractors out there, but Darker than Amber worked almost flawlessly on me.After a really groovy musical intro, the film begins with McGee and Meyer fishing at night under a bridge. Unbeknownst to them, a couple of really bad dudes are on the bridge with a drugged out young woman. After tying 80 pound weights to her ankles, they chuck her overboard. McGee goes in to save her. He takes the woman, Vangie (Suzy Kendall), back to his boat. She tells McGee that she doesn't want the police involved. Travis knows the girl is mixed up in something bad, but she's very mysterious about the details. Over the next few days, Travis and Vangie develop a relationship. So when Vangie is killed by a hit-and-run driver, Travis is determined to get to the bottom of who Vangie really was, what she was involved in, and, most importantly, who killed her. There is so much more to the story, but this little synopsis is a start.I'm not going to get into the whole discussion of whether or not Darker than Amber is faithful to the books. I've read a few Travis McGee novels over the years, but it's been so long, I'm not qualified to discuss this. Instead, I'm just going to write about the movie on its own. I think that one of the things that makes Darker than Amber so enjoyable to me are the actors and their characters. Rod Taylor is perfect as Travis McGee (again, I'm not saying he is or is not the Travis McGee of the books). He's believable whether he's playing the beach-bum who steers his boat with his feet while sipping on Scotch or he's disarming a piece of white trash in a diner or he's engaging in a wildly over-the-top, but completely believable, fight scene. However, as macho as all that is, Taylor also played the more sensitive parts of his role expertly. When Vangie is killed, you can see the hurt in his face. He's just good. William Smith plays the main baddie, Terry. Like Taylor, he's also perfect. Smith made a career out of playing bad guys, but none better than here. Add his character Terry to the list of best movie psychos. What a sick, twisted piece of garbage. It's awesome. Finally, I'll briefly mention Suzy Kendall as Vangie. She may not be as good as the others, but I still enjoyed her performance. She has a natural vulnerability to her that works in role of Vangie. Rounding out this excellent cast are Bikel and Robert Phillips. Neither has a very large role, but both are outstanding. A rock solid cast playing interesting, entertaining characters – I loved it.As much as I want to credit the actors, director Robert Clouse also did some outstanding work with Darker than Amber. For me, the movie is perfectly paced. I've read complaints about some of the slower scenes in the second act. While there may have been some slow moments, I never found it dull. Clouse handles the legendary final fight scene expertly. I've already mentioned it once, but this fight is a real showstopper. Watching these two guys beat the living crap out of each other is as good a fight scene as I can remember. It works because it all looks and feels so real. I think with that last sentence I've stumble on what I like about the whole thing – it feels so authentic and real. Darker than Amber is a winner with me.

This film is hard to pigeon hole into any preset category. Its based on the writings of John D. MacDonald a Pennsylvania native and a very prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in the South and predominantly the southern tip of the state of Florida. Between the years 1953 and 1964, MacDonald specialized in crime thrillers, considered now as masterpieces of the hard-boiled genre. Most of these novels were published as pulp paperback originals, with their attendant sleazy cover art. His noir/neo noir street creds start with his 1957 novel The Executioners that was brought to the screen in 1962 as Cape Fear, a very dark story of suspense and animalistic menace starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Many of MacDonald's novels suggested a sinister presence just beneath the friendly patina of palm tree studded small coastal towns.The film followed McGee's back story very well. McGee was basically a Florida beach bum, a Korean War Vet, who won a large 52-foot barge-type houseboat in a poker game. His home base was Ft. Lauderdale, Bahia Mar Marina, slip F-18, but his life style enabled him to drift about the inter-coastal waterway, the Everglades, and the Florida Keys, beach combing, drinking, fishing. He named the houseboat boat the Busted Flush, and took his retirement in installments between jobs, when the money ran out he did "salvage consultant" work. The salvage work was retrieving things lost by people, in shady legal deals, scams, flimflams, skulduggery, etc., etc., usually things with no proper recourse for the victim. McGee's price was for half of whatever he recovered, and half was better than nothing. Occasionally McGee was asked to locate missing people in other Gulf States or foreign locals in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. He is a sort of rogue PI without a license.McGee had a quasi partner/buddy Meyer, a retired economics professor, a brainy type that McGee could bounce problems and ideas off of, who lived on a cabin cruiser moored in a slip near by. The only other regular was the "Alabama Tiger" a millionaire, who had the "worlds longest running boat party" on a large yacht also in the Marina. In the film this is changed to the "Alabama Tigress" (Jane Russell). McGee also had an old Rolls Royce that had been in an accident and had been converted into a pickup truck that was called "Miss Agnes".The story of Darker Than Amber starts off very noir-ishly. As credits roll to a jazzy tune, a convertible speeds down a deserted highway, street lights whiz by overhead, a passing car highlights a driver (Robert Phillips), and a bleach blond goon (William Smith) sitting in the back seat with a honey-haired woman named Vangie (Suzy Kendall). A street lamp flash reveals that one of her feet is lashed to a dumbbell. The car passes over a long bridge a remote section of the Overseas Highway bridge (the highway that island hops its way to Key West) it reaches the far end and makes a U-turn. After a semi passes the car drives back onto the bridge. Cut to McGee (Rod Taylor) and Meyer (Theodore Bikel) fishing from a small rental skiff anchored at night under the ridge. The car pulls to a stop above them and the honey-haired woman strapped to the dumbbell is dropped off the bridge. As the car speeds off she sinks immediately from site and she's hooked on McGee's lure. McGee, with Meyer wielding a flashlight, dives in and brings her up. They resuscitate her and head back the Flush. She wont tell them her name, and she doesn't want them to go to the police. McGee heads back to the bridge in the daytime and dives to retrieve the dumbbell, (an 85 lb. weight for a 100 lb. woman) but is seen by a lookout who is staking out the "murder" site. As they cruise leisurely back up the Keys McGee slowly pries the story out of her. Her name is Vangie (Suzy Kendall), short for Evangeline she was literally a Femme Fatale, a high priced call girl working a cruise ship racket that lured drunk wealthy unattached men to a rendezvous at her cabin. The men were surprised by either Griff (Phillips) or Terry (Smith) and killed for their money then deep six-ed over the side. She was wanting out of the racket but the only way out is dead. By the time they reach Bahia Mar, McGee and Vangie are an item. But she decides to sneak off the Flush in another noir-ish sequence and go back to her bungalow and retrieve her stash of ill gotten loot. Her two murder racket accomplices Terry (William Smith) and Griff (Robert Phillips) tipped off that she is still alive, spot her while she is on her way. Terry grabs Vangie and while Griff speeds down the highway towards them Terry tosses Vangie into the cars path, the force blasts her through a plate glass window of an ice cream parlor.Ahna Capri delivers a good performance as Del, Vangie's co Femme Fatale partner in Terry's murder for money scheme. McGee is able to convince her that she is next to be eliminated.The hit-and-run murder of Vangie, sets McGee off on a revenge mission that culminates in a legendary graphically violent, savage, fight scene, between Rod Taylor's Travis McGee and the film's villain, Terry. This film needs a fully restored DVD release of the full Runtime: 96 min, the version I have was recorded off TCM and it is missing a few minutes of the legendary fight sequence (which can be see on YouTube in a Dutch release)A 9/10 for McGee fans (it could have been a tad bit longer for character development) and an 8/10 if you are unfamiliar with the material

I really wish Rod Taylor and Theodore Bikel had teamed up for a series of McGee films. John D. MacDonald was a wonderful storyteller - his bad guys are believable and really scary, and his sense of locale is perfect - but the best part is the lifestyle of his hero, a large part of which are the friendships he has with Meyer and others (the boat rental guy!), and the idea of taking retirement in chunks as you go along (because you never know...). It takes a series to fill it all in; like 21 novels, in which McGee slowly gets a little older, a little wiser. I could see Taylor and Bikel doing that. (Just as Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin and a good repertory company did for a few of the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout).So if you liked the books and want a glimpse of one of them in live-action, try to find a copy; and hopefully an unedited one. You'll be glad you did.

Suzi Kendall as Vangie was the only misstep in this film.As a long time Travis McGee fan I thought this film was close to perfect a representation of McDonald's work as you will ever see. The "Empty Copper Sea" T.V movie was the worst piece of dreck I've ever seen.Too bad this movie wasn't more successful at the box office. It received good reviews when released but I guess McDonald didn't have enough McGee fans to make this series viable. I can't think of any contemporary actors that could be cast as well as these actors were. I have a Dutch copy of the film with subtitles but unfortunately it is pan and scan and not the best quality.