21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most Complete Version, August 27, 2005
This review is from: The Dain Curse (DVD)
To date, this is the most complete version of the the tv miniseries from 1978 and a most satisfying watch it is!! The running time is 4hours and 40 minutes. Image Entertainment has done a great job of restoring this almost classic to its full glory. It may not be a classic like The Maltese Falcon (John Huston version), The Thin Man or The Glass Key (Alan Ladd version) but it is still a very well made movie.(DO NOT settle for the truncated versions on video tape 1 1/2hrs and just over two hours)the story line is too garbled for that short of run time and many, many scenes are deleted!? Why did it take 27 years for this movie to be seen in it's complete and uncut version? This movie may gall some hardcore Hammett readers because The Continental Op has a name, the name of the agency is changed and the setting is changed to New York, but the ENTIRE storyline is left intact and the time period is correct in every detail, so what's the problem? Forget the minor changes, sit back, and enjoy a minor television miniseries classic!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dain Curse mini series a minor classic, April 10, 2010
Full disclosure: I'm going to be a little controversial here. Over last weekend, while on a train trip, I watched all of the 1978 miniseries of The Dain Curse (you can get it on netflix or amazon). It stars James Coburn in a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel. While I struggled with the first 15 minutes of the dvd, I came to really really like it and view it as a minor classic. And while it's easy to get caught up in the great styling, fashion, period architecture, cars, etc. in the miniseries, the best thing about it is:
* It makes the novel better. While Dain Curse has a lot of good episodes in it, it feels often, well, episodic. Like it was written at different times. STructurally, the whole Quesada episode seems tagged on and disconnected, at least to me.
The mini series solves this by putting the Op's attraction to Gabrielle at the heart of the story, instead of as a weird addendum in the Third Act. While this may humanize and romanticize the Op to some people's dislike, i think it makes the story hold better. Coburn isn't my favorite actor, but, boy, he aces this role.
I think this may even be better than Maltese Falcon as a screen adaptation of Hammett. It's not a movie (5 hours long), it looks like a Masterpiece Theater kind of show (video,cheapie sets), but still: this one really works. Give it a try.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pointing out an error, February 23, 2005
The adaption of Dashiell Hammet's "The Dain Curse" was indeed a complex and enjoyable mini-series, which screened on Australian television back when it was first made. An edited version of the series was released on video and as the previous reviewer stated, it made no sense and was a waste of time and money. However, if you take a closer look at the cover image for this release, it clearly states that it is the "Original Unedited Miniseries". If this is the case, then this video is a worthy inclusion to the collection of any fan of crime/mystery television. Having said that, apparently a DVD version is scheduled for release in May 2005. Wooohooo!
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