Surprisingly incoherent and boring

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Full disclosure: I am a fan of the Travis McGee novels, so that can't help but factor into my appraisal of this picture. The original novel was taut, suspenseful and intricately plotted. The movie version shoehorns, shorthands and simplifies virtually every aspect of the story, further burdening it with an inferior script and some of the worst acting I've ever seen on screen. The horrible direction is about as laughable as the embarrassingly dated musical score. Honestly, it's difficult to imagine a time when this could have been viewed and honestly enjoyed by anybody, having been so awkwardly put together. Reading the Travis McGee novels, you have a certain expectation of what our hero might look like brought to life -- a Tom Selleck sort, perhaps, or Sam Elliot (who played Trav on TV). But...Rod Taylor? Was Lloyd Bridges unavailable or something? There's a wholly unnecessary cameo by Jane Russell playing someone named Alabama Tigress, who is not a character in the novel and who, in the movie, is relegated to shouting her lines from one idling boat to another. The movie is COMPLETE trash, poorly conceived and missing so much of plot, characterization and nuance of the novel that anybody who wasn't already familiar with the story would never be able to make sense of this confusing and wretched mess. (It will be interesting to see what future filmmakers will do with Travis McGee, but Leonardo DiCaprio is no fan's idea of McGee, so I predict fans will accept him in the way Jack Reacher fans accepted Tom Cruise in the role.)

Rod Taylor is best known for "The Birds" and most recently had a brief appearance in "Inglourious Basterds" as Winston Churchill. Over the years, he's appeared in various other flicks, including "Darker Than Amber". I had never heard of Travis McGee, so this was totally new to me (in fact, "DTA" is so far the only Travis McGee novel adapted to the screen). There were some fairly interesting fights, but I found the erotic factor far more appealing. It's a fairly routine detective story, although we do get a look at the Florida Everglades. This isn't the movie that I would recommend above all others, but it's still worth seeing. Also starring Suzy Kendall, Jane Russell, Janet MacLachlan, Theodore Bikel and William Smith.PS: director Robert Clouse also directed "Enter the Dragon".

I had the privliage of being in this picture. I was a 20 year old college kid going to Miami-Dade Jr. College. I was majoring in theater and one of my teachers was also a working actor. He got auditions for a bunch of his students and we went to the Ivan Tors studio on the appointed day and I was lucky enough to get cast as an extra. I'm on the dock at the end of the picture for the end of the fight scene. I was reading John D. MacDonald at the time and was a big fan of Travis McGee. Not many people know that Chuck Conners had bought the rights to the character after this picture came out.In 2000 I had cast William Smith in my picture STAGE GHOST and we discussed DARKER THAN AMBER. He said that it is absolutely true that he and Rod went at it in the fight scene and did some damage to each other! However, they were and are great friends and I hope some how this picture is transfered to DVD. There is a DVD copy available off the internet but it won't play very well. This a cult classic that deserves to be seen by a wider audience, re-mastered in DVD.

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.