"Darker Than Amber" (1970)Rod Taylor plays Travis McGee, the boat-bum hero of 21 novels by John D. MacDonald. McGee is a Korean War veteran, a former college football player and a dropout from conventional society. He lives in Fort Lauderdale aboard a 52-foot houseboat called The Busted Flush, named for the poker hand that won him the boat. McGee earns his living as a salvage consultant -- recovering missing or stolen goods for half their value -- and takes his retirement in installments. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound, heavily-muscled McGee has sandy hair, blue eyes, a deep tan and a winning smile. (Rod Taylor's not quite as tall, but the rest fits!) He routinely rescues lovely women, fixes broken hearts and administers therapeutic sex. In "Darker Than Amber," McGee and his pal Meyer (Theodore Bikel) rescue Vangie (Suzy Kendall), a beauty who's thrown over a bridge with a weight tied to her ankle. The murder attempt was courtesy of her partners in crime, and despite McGee's best efforts, they're successful on a later attempt. (But first, in a series of scenes that diverge from the book, McGee gets romantically involved with Vangie. The scenes work well, movie-wise, and establish McGee as the tough-but-tender character that he is. Also diverging from the book, the movie Vangie is a blonde Brit, not a dark-haired Eurasian.) Following Vangie's demise, McGee sets out to retrieve her hidden cash and to trap the bad guys, with the help of Meyer and a Vangie look-alike. The pursuit leads McGee to Nassau, aboard a cruise ship where the con men work their crimes. The movie's climax is a brutal fight scene that's celebrated in many reviews and lamented for being censored in video releases of the film. Here's how actor William Smith (who played the murderous Terry Bartell) describes it:
The characters in "Darker Than Amber" are well-cast: Theodore Bikel as Meyer is perfect, and the villains are suitably creepy. The location shots are cool, too, especially for someone who lived in Fort Lauderdale at that time. I like this movie mostly because I can't resist the convergence of two of my favorite men -- Rod Taylor and Travis McGee. I wish Taylor had taken on the entire McGee series -- but with a director and scriptwriter that could mine the richness of the MacDonald stories and characters better. MacDonald on the movie McGee "The Red Hot Typewriter," a biography of John D. MacDonald, has an extensive section on " Darker than Amber."At first, Robert Culp was to be cast as Travis McGee. But Culp fell through, much to MacDonald's relief: "Culp was a disaster," biographer Hugh Merrill quoted MacDonald as saying. "No comprehension of the touch needed. ... Glad he will not be McGee." That reaction contrasted to his appraisal of Rod Taylor. Although apprehensive at first -- "Culp too wispy and elegant, and this one maybe too squat and hairy and direct." But never fear, once the actor and the author met, "We hit what is called instant empathy," MacDonald said, adding:
Another book, “A Friendship: The Letters of Dan Rowan and John D MacDonald 1967-74" contains a series of correspondence between MacDonald and his friend Dan Rowan of “Laugh In” fame. Here's one passage, from MacDonald to Dan Rowan on Oct. 8, 1968, writing about the appearance of Robert Culp on "Laugh In" and the choice of Rod Taylor as McGee:
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