Customer Reviews

The Dain Curse

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

I have wanted to see "The Dain Curse" again ever since I watched it on television 33 years ago. James Coburn may not be Sir Laurence Olivier, but he nails the noir story and setting. It was one of the best mini-series of its time, and hasn't lost a bit of its appeal. A pox on whoever thought it was a good idea to edit it almost by half for a VHS version, and kudos for whoever finally succeeded in making the whole production available.

James Coburn is an actor who no matter which role he plays, one wants to watch him act. Like for example; you want to listen to Caruso or to Maria Callas even if the songs they sometimes sing is not the greatest. You still are enthralled by their voices and their interpretation. The Dain Curse is a great show based on a great book and is played by James Coburn and by Nancy Addison (who by the way, looks and acts in this show, far better than in any other of her films or shows, in a masterful manner.

This was one of Hammett's better mysteries and the movie did it justice. Of course the movie gave his detective (The Continental Op) a name which the book did not but, it also gave us James Coburn as the detective. and the DVD provided a complete uncut version. My favorite mystery writer and one of my favoite actors.

It might seem a little presumptious of me to give this miniseries 5 stars since I have never seen the complete miniseries. Yet I saw part of this on my little 12 inch black and white TV many years ago when it was first released. Missed the rest due to a night job at the university. What I saw was absolutely astounding and I'm going to buy it as soon as I find it on sale. For 30 years those images have been etched for me. Extraordinarily atmospheric! (Was that the black & white picture working its magic?) Great sets with wonderful music! Story? It's Hammett! (For you noir fans that means the same writer who wrote "The Maltese Falcon.")

This movie is one of the best detective movies ever made. I would rank it with the 1940 production of The Maltese Falcon. Coburn is perfect as private detective Hamilton Nash, and the rest of the cast deliver matchless performances that only the finest actors can. I have waited for a good reproduction of this masterpiece since I first saw it on television in the late 1970's, and I am thrilled to have it on a DVD of my own. Bravo!

The original series runs about 4 and a half hours (I taped it a couple years ago when a local station ran it). This tape is only about 2 hours long. With less than half the footage, this complex mystery will make absolutely no sense to you.

The origonal story from the same writer of THE MALTESE FALCON----though this a very much 1970s tv show/mini-series, not some 1930s/40s poverty row movie.

this five hour tv movie would have been a better 90 minute poverty row movie, with its murder story, religious cult, and drug addiction. james coburn sobering up in the cult's building, after being drugged, has none of the mood of the 40s MURDER MY SWEET similar drug scene.

This is a very pre-MIAMI VICE looking movie, when all tv movies had lousy, banal, photography; this mini-series, set in the 20s, has the mood and photography of a typical contemporary 1970s cop show, or maybe a MASTERPIECE THEATER episode.

The actor who would later play Data on STAR TREK has a small part opposite jean simmmons. And part of this mini-series was filmed in rural Pennsylvania.