JOHN D MACDONALD REVISITED - "DARKER THAN AMBER" (1970) FINALLY MAKES STREAMING WORLD, NOTORIOUS FIGHT SCENE AND ALL

 

Once considered quite the obscurity, a 1970 gem starring none other than Rod Taylor has finally seen the light of streaming day. Taylor plays private detective Travis McGee, the main character in twelve of McDonald's novels. He and his alter ego Meyer (also in all the books) are fishing and see a woman thrown off a bridge. They rescue her and discover she's a reject from a big prostitution and murder ring. Well, McGee's gotta take them all down cause that's the kind of guy he is. 

McDonald, for those in the unknow, was a pulp fiction super-writer who took his work very seriously. No matter what, he was in his office writing every single day from 8 to 5, he completely treated it like a job. In the 1940's he sent his stories into magazines and eventually became very successful. If you like mystery or pulp, I highly recommend you check out his work. 

Taylor, who goes a bit against cast on this one, is terrific. I always dug him in movies like The Time Machine and Hotel. There's an infamous fist fight scene near the end with Taylor and his nemesis that got a little,,,ok, a lot out of hand. The two actors crossed the line and it became real while cameras kept rolling. This scene, very mellow by today's standards, was considered so violent at the time it made for a cut so R could become PG (called GP at the time.)

In whole, this is an excellent adaptation of the novel although McDonald himself detested the film. Shot in Florida, well directed with lots of action scenes, Travis' cool house boat (in all the novels) and a cameo with Jane Russell. This is a real film folks and while sadly it remains the only novel of his adapted to a feature, it's well worth the watch and we're glad to see it back on a big screen. Tubi, of course.    2.75 stars/5