04/01/10 - Darker Than Amber

Darker Than Amber (1970, 96 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065610/

I return to the Weird Wednesday viewings with this film titled Darker Than Amber. Apparently this was from a book series that Hollywood is actually thinking about re-booting now with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role so it was interesting to think of that while watching.

The movie follows a guy named Travis McGee (Rod Taylor) who, in his words, "finds stuff" that other people want. While fishing with his friend Meyer (Theodore Bikel) they get caught up in a crime ring with Terry (William Smith).

I most enjoyed the atmosphere of this film. I got the vibe that this could have been a really well handled movie series just like James Bond but for some reason this was the only one of the books adapted into a film. Mainly I liked the Florida setting, the good music choices and just the overall "feel" of the movie.

Similarly, I liked McGee as a main character. He was brutal and tough when he needed to be but he also had his flaws. For example, McGee fell in "love" entirely too easily with the two main female characters. But aside from this, I found McGee to be a rugged James Bond clone. However, being made in 1970 (not long after Dr. No and probably before James Bond really got big) and coming from a book earlier, it's impossible to knock the film for this. And really, the film has its own unique flavor and feel with its own fun hero.

The biggest flaw I had for this film was the plot. It was overall just lacking in my opinion and I never really cared if McGee actually accomplished his goal. That's not to say that I didn't like McGee (I just said above that I did), it's just that the stuff he was trying to do just never really got the "this is important so he needs to accomplish it" treatment in my opinion. Probably a contributing factor to this was the lack of a good bad guy. Terry just never did anything really. I imagine these aspects are handled much better in the book though.

Overall, I gave this film a 5/10. It's a fun film to watch (though the people I watched it with really disagreed with me there) but the plot is pretty poor. The setting is superb and I liked the more technical things such as how the film was shot and how scenes were framed. McGee was a pretty cool character and I think I'll actually check out the news on the new film if they make it.