August 14 1970 

DARKER THAN AMBER opens in New York. Directed by Robert Clouse. Written by John D. MacDonald and Ed Waters, from MacDonald's 1966 novel. Rod Taylor is Travis McGee, a tough-as-nails Florida-based private eye whose investigation into the murder of a young woman leads him to a prostitution ring aboard a cruise ship. A box-office disappointment, the film’s climactic set-piece, an extraordinarily ferocious, purportedly real, knock-down, drag-out, bare knuckle fight between Taylor’s McGee and William Smith’s deranged killer, has attracted a richly deserved cult following. Also starring Suzy Kendall, Theodore Bikel, and one-time sex symbol Jane Russell in her final screen appearance

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