McGee, der Tiger

Outstanding action film that builds up like movies used to in the 70s. Unfortunately the DVD version is cut for television so the fight scenes are missing.

I did manage to see a poor, uncut version with Dutch subtitles burned into it a few years ago, but that's about the closest you'll find to it. Not the best shape but you can see the fight scenes in all their bloody glory.

I'm hoping somebody like Vinegar Syndrome will issue a remastered uncut version of it someday. Here's hoping that will happen.

2 for cut version 7 for uncut version.

PS: I heard Taylor actually hurt Smith in the fight scene. That's very possible, it's that brutal.

I saw Darker Than Amber 34 years ago, and it made an indelible impression on me. Perhaps it was because the realistic fast paced action and suspense, which is commonplace today, was a breakthrough at the time. I would compare it with some of the action scenes in Steve McQueen's Bullitt. I was reading John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels long before this movie came out, and being a Rod Taylor fan, this was the icing on the cake for me. Taylor brought McGee to life, a no nonsense, tough as nails guy, a Bond without the gadgets and gimmicks. I certainly wish the Production Company/Distributors would put it out on DVD, so everyone else could enjoy it. It could most assuredly become a cult classic.

If you are a Travis McGee fan, this is one film which belongs in your collection. The movie mirrors the book and the fact leading man Rod Taylor has the role is no surprise as he is perfect for the part. In short the story is of Travis McGee, a Private detective hired to investigate the death of a woman who's sister has been murdered. McGee discoverers the murderer is none other than William Smith who plays Terry Bartell. Smith is awesome in this role and anyone who gazes on that extraordinary physique of his will be impressed his good looks match his formidable strength. Adding to the interest of this film are sympathetic Theodore Bikel as Meyer and Suzy Kendall who doubles as Vangie/Merrimay. Travis and his friends plan an elaborate scheme in which the victim will return to haunt her murderer. What they don't know is that their intended mark is as explosive, unpredictable and dangerous as a lit bundle of dynamite. The final physical confrontation is one of the finest ever recorded on film. So fiercely brutal and bloody that many versions of the movie are highly edited. Rod Taylor at his best and a must film for Taylor fans. ****

This is indeed a good movie--a tidy, well-acted and -directed thriller with a good "take" on Travis McGee by the rock-solid and dependable Rod Taylor. But it is a tough one to get to see in its entirety, as some of the other reviewers have noted. Even the commercial prints have a running time of 91 minutes, and they are obviously and clumsily cut (here's a clue: the background music and sound jump drastically). No doubt this is because the violence is graphic for a film of this vintage, although that doesn't explain why it almost impossible to find a complete 93-minute copy here in the 21st century. I found one through a guy who knew a guy and so on--a Dutch copy with Dutch subtitles--and after 30 years of poking around (I was doing other things, too, during these decades) I finally got to see the whole movie. And it was worth it, as it almost always is to see the entire work, as the director (Clouse's next film was "Enter the Dragon") intended it. Some might think 2 minutes out of a film is no big deal (although they might gripe if you handed them a novel with 2 or 3 percent of its pages torn out) but this is too good a movie to snip. And although there have been bigger, longer, bloodier, more you-name-it fights, no two men on screen have ever looked like they are really, desperately trying to hurt each other as much as Rod Taylor and William Smith in the climactic fight in this movie. If you can find it, watch it. Good luck.

A great detective film. The usually underrated Rod Taylor gives a gripping performance, holding his own against scene stealer William Smith. The ending features one of the greatest fight scenes ever filmed involving ,basically, only two men. I was not too framiliar with Travis McGee before this film but have since become a fan. And Suzy Kendall is always fun to look at