Movie review - "Darker Than Amber" (1970) **

Another ‘near-miss’ film from a time when Rod Taylor seemed to be making a habit out them. The star should have been ideal as Travis McGee, but neither his performance nor the film came together. Rod wears a series of ridiculous looking tight shorts and outrageous 70s suits which make the character come across as unintentionally funny. A more serious problem is that there was not enough story in the original novel to justify a feature film without some major changes; the film’s script unfortunately follows the novel’s story too closely, leading to a middle section where nothing much happens. On the positive side, Robert Clouse’s direction is visually interesting, Suzy Kendall is beautiful and Will Smith makes a terrifying villain. But ultimately the film fails to work.