Darker Than Amber (1970)
Rod Taylor, Theodore Bikel, Suzy Kendall, William Smith, Ahna Capri, Janet MacLachlan, Robert Phillips and Jane Russell
Director – Robert Clouse
From National General Pictures
Travis McGee (Taylor) lives in Florida on his houseboat, the Busted Flush. Late one night, he is fishing under a bridge with his buddy, Meyer (Bikel) when a girl drops in. Thing is, the girl has been thrown from the bridge by a couple of hoods and she has weights tied to her ankles. Turns out Vangie (Kendall) is garters-deep in a prostitution and murder ring involving among others her teammate in the scheme, Terry (Smith). When tragedy strikes, McGee finds himself getting involved against his better judgment and hatching a plan to gather evidence to bust up the gang and their deadly ring.
Author John D. MacDonald was born in Pennsylvania – just like everyone else. I’m tellinya, I run into more Vintage Leisure players born in the Keystone State than you can shake a stick at. There’s an article there. Anyways, MacDonald was born in Sharon – 70 miles north of Pittsburgh, home to the World’s Largest Shoe Store – in 1916 and would later accept a direct commission as a first lieutenant of the United States Army Ordnance Corps, serving during WW2 in the Office of Strategic Services in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. The first of his 40 crime thrillers was published in 1950 and in ’57 he published The Executioners which has been filmed twice – you know it as Cape Fear.
In 1964, MacDonald issued The Deep Blue Good-by. The author had been actually commissioned to create a series character and MacDonald would go on to feature his hero Travis McGee in 21 novels each with a title referencing a colour. Travis is akin to another beloved character, Simon Templar, in that he is a “knight errant”, someone McGee calls a “salvage consultant”. Through word of mouth, people caught in jams learn that McGee can help them retrieve whatever has been taken from them. If he is successful, Travis keeps half of what is recovered and on this he is able to maintain his lifestyle as a beach bum, in McGee’s own words, and he is only inclined to take on work when necessity dictates. Unlike jaded and world-weary Phillip Marlowe, Travis McGee is generally gregarious and well-liked, even a bit of a partier though he maintains a strict set of morals and ideals.
In 1967, John MacDonald was presented with the opportunity to have Travis featured in a TV series but he refused stating that people might be less likely to read the books if they could watch him on TV every week. But in 1970 John agreed to the adaptation of Darker Than Amber into a feature film and maybe part of the decision was down to the producer, Walter Seltzer, being a Philly boy and a fellow Pennsylvanian. Seltzer, a former US Marine, produced only a handful of films but many are notable; One-Eyed Jacks, Paris Blues and Wild Seed and then several with Chuck Heston including The Omega Man and Soylent Green. Ed Waters was a lower level TV writer who penned our script as he had done earlier with a MacDonald story. Waters had made John’s Soft Touch into Man-Trap, a 1961 neo-noir starring Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen and Stella Stevens that was directed by Edmond O’Brien. The director of our film is Robert Clouse who debuted as a director in 1970. I know the name from him having directed the magnificent Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee and soon after Clouse would direct Jim Kelly in the audaciously wonderful Black Belt Jones. Clouse’s legacy as a director may be somewhat tainted due to his adherence to the martial arts genre; remember Gymkata starring an Olympic gymnast?
Rod Taylor makes a pretty good Travis McGee. I have talked about the Aussie before in my piece on Sunday in New York. Theodore Bikel plays McGee’s unlikely buddy, Meyer. Bikel was born in Vienna and I’ll say this for him – cat was prolific and made the most of his 91 years. He was an actor, singer, musician, composer, unionist, and political activist who acted on both stage and screen and made folk records. He was in The African Queen and The Defiant Ones and also appeared on Charlie’s Angels and Falcon Crest. He tested for Auric Goldfinger and created the role of Captain Von Trapp on Broadway. He co-founded the Newport Folk Festival and helped promote young folk singers including Bob Dylan.
Suzy Kendall (b. Derbyshire, England, 1937) was a decorative actress who appeared in a limited number of English and Italian giallo films with names like The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Torso, Spasmo and Craze. But she can also be seen in Thunderball and To Sir, With Love. She was married to Dudley Moore and after they divorced they stayed tight, Dudley eventually becoming godfather to a child she had with her next husband. I have talked also about the mighty William Smith in these pages. The man who was called “the greatest bad-guy character actor of our time” had scores of acting credits to his name and did many of his own stunts – including fighting. More on that later and for the full skinny on Big Bad Billy Smith who lived to be 88, check here.
At around the time she appeared in Darker Than Amber, Ahna Capri (born Budapest, Hungary) had changed the spelling of her name from “Anna” to reflect how it should be pronounced. She had a brother who went by Peter Robbins and who was the first actor to voice Charlie Brown in the Peanuts TV specials. Anything she’s in (like an Adam-12 one night) I spot Ahna and recognize her from Enter the Dragon, in which she played John Saxon’s girl before meeting a sad end. Speaking of which, poor Ahna was driving when her car was hit by a 5-ton truck driven by a 22-year old female. After ten days in a coma on life-support, Capri passed on. It was 2010 and she was 66.
Janet MacLachlan (b. Harlem, 1933-2010) made few appearances on either the small or big screen but many that she made were notable. She can be seen in an episode of Star Trek, in the feature …tick…tick…tick… with big Jim Brown, Sounder and then later in Tightrope with Clint and Murphy’s Law with Bronson. I must make note of Robert Phillips. Born in Ol’ Chi, Bob was a self-defense instructor in the Marines, played pro ball with the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins, he was a police officer in the LAPD and the Illinois State Police and he was a personal bodyguard of Adlai Stevenson II when he was Governor of Illinois. The real deal, this guy. He got into films when he was hired by studios as a minder for Lee Marvin, to prevent him from getting into brawls after hours. Ahh, the good old days. Guy ended up appearing in some big films; The Silencers, The Dirty Dozen, Mackenna’s Gold, Slaughter and Mean Johnny Barrows. Phillips was tough – tough enough to make it to 93 years old.
Jane Russell’s appearance in this film is a ludicrosity – as was her appearance in her previous film, 1967’s The Born Losers. It was a technique employed at the time, placing stars from previous eras in rougher, drive-in films like this one. Her presence and her character – with the ridiculous handle Alabama Tigress – are pointless and are absent from MacDonald’s book. Russell plays a woman who owns a neighbouring boat on which she has a thriving party. That’s it. And yet Russell is billed high up on many listings. I watched Darker Than Amber on Tubi, natch, and their poster actually features Jane Russell’s name first! I’ll admit to knowing very little about Jane aside from her figure but looking her up recently has me greatly impressed by her. Do yourself a favour and check out her story.
There seems to be no clean print of Darker Than Amber extant and this presentation adds to the late night, drive-in, grindhouse vibe that permeates the film. I watched the film years ago on YouTube and was charmed when I saw telltale signs of a VHS-taped-off-the-late-show print; there actually were a couple of those classic VHS picture glitches we all remember from our worn out tapes. And the closing credits included a voiceover informing the viewer that coming up “next Tuesday at twenty-to-one is The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer”. More recently when I saw it was being offered on Tubi I was thrilled and tuned in. Interesting to see that Tubi carried the exact same print with the glitches and get this; the closing credits fade to black at the point where the voice over would be so I’ll bet it’s the same print. That confirms for me that this film indeed is wallowing in an as-is netherworld with no proper edition currently in existence.
The rough and grainy VHS-quality presentation of Darker Than Amber in its current state matches well the film itself. It has B movie optics and this is apropos considering it comes to us from National General Pictures, a smaller film production and distribution company responsible for some notable films, some I’ve already discussed here; Presley’s fine western Charro!, A Fine Pair, the Rock Hudson-Claudia Cardinale winter movie I talked about here, the thought-provoking The April Fools, The Grasshopper, one of the most compelling films I’ve ever seen and later on, two latter-day westerns from the Duke, Rio Lobo and Big Jake.
Our film is harsh and coarse with a certain brutality and even a vulgarity. Perhaps you go into the viewing thinking of something akin to a Matt Helm or a Derek Flint but this is not that. What it is though is a great “boat life” movie. Like our boy Tony Rome, Travis lives on a boat, the Busted Flush, and the viewer is treated to a look at a life lived on the water. McGee’s boat is outfitted nicely and we see a Hibachi alight, the appeal of mornings aboard as well as the quiet evening and the general coziness of houseboat living. You can just imagine living such a life with the quaint quarters, McGee steering with his boat shoes in tank top fit and healthy, Meyer in captain’s hat. And with this of course comes nice filming locations shot in Florida and the Bahamas. All this makes Darker Than Amber an excellent warm weather picture. “Live it up, soak it up. Stay loose enough to do my own thing”, McGee says, “NOW is the best of life”.
The movie, though, may be best known for its violence and for a particularly savage fight scene between Rod Taylor and William Smith. In many listings for the movie you will see the two actors noted under Stunts as “uncredited stunt performers”. Why? Because they actually fought each other. I suppose it was planned out and choreographed ahead of time, but McGee and Terry get into it in the cramped quarters of a onboard stateroom – bringing to mind Bond and Grant and Bond and Jaws from From Russia, With Love and The Spy Who Loved Me respectively – and things quickly get out of hand. We have to assume William Smith was a real bad dude, one that perhaps would not like to admit that a simple actor would be equal to him in a knock-down drag-out. But dig what Smith said about Darker Than Amber in an interview when talking about his adventures in film; “That was a different story. Fight choreography and staging went out the window when Rod decided to really hit me. And so the fight was on. That was a real fight with real blood and real broken bones. Rod is a skilled fighter, and, at the same time a real scrapper. Now that was a good fight!”
The battle is absolutely savage and one tries hard to spot which of Taylor’s swings connected. Apparently, Taylor broke three of Smith’s ribs while Smith broke Taylor’s nose and in addition much of the room and its furnishings get destroyed. Smith staying in character is a bonus. His Terry is completely unhinged at the best of times and so in a fight he is a wild man. And could you imagine Dean Martin as Matt Helm or Roger Moore as James Bond looking like Rod Taylor does after this fight? His shirt is torn open and is covered in blood. It’s excessive but that’s what we’re here for. That’s what makes the fight and the film great.
But then they flip the switch with the ending. Seems Travis really fell for Vangie and also may feel some guilt because he couldn’t keep her safe. He’s back on the Busted Flush with a lady who makes a gentle play, making it plain that she’d be willing to do her part to help soothe what ails McGee both physically and emotionally. He quietly and somewhat tiredly declines saying that it “might take a little time” before he is over Vangie and able to relate properly to another woman. As Jerry Naylor sings “Vangie’s Theme”, Travis McGee walks off to bed alone. A poignantly tender finale to a ferocious movie.
John D. MacDonald was not happy with the filmed version of his book, Darker Than Amber. He called it “feral, cheap, rotten, gratuitously meretricious, shallow and embarrassing”. “Meretricious”; some fancy book-writer talk there. Means pretty but no soul; like a prostitute. There never would be another feature film appearance for Travis McGee though he would show up again in a TV movie. Travis McGee was a 1983 telefilm that served as a pilot for a series that never eventuated. Just as well, says star Sam Elliott who fought the network tooth and nail to retain the tenor of the books but the suits knew better and even inexplicably moved McGee from Florida to – wait for it – California. In 2015, there was talk of Christian Bale taking up the mantle but the plans went by the boards.
So, that leaves us with Rod Taylor as Travis McGee in 1970’s Darker Than Amber. This is a prime example of the “late show”. It’s a hidden gem of a film that combines smooth boat-living and brutal violence with just a dash of feeling added.
SoulRide 