August 14 1970 

DARKER THAN AMBER opens 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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