"The Dain Curse" was one of Dashiell Hammett's most convoluted detective stories and one of his best, ranking with "The Matese Falcon" and "The Thin Man". It certainly rates an adequate movie treatment. However, despite the efforts of a first-rate cast of actors, this is definitely not it. Having read the novel some years ago, I finally got the chance to see this 1978 version recently on Amazon. First of all, the principal character has been given the name "Hamilton Nash", clearly a play on the name of the author and, as portrayed by James Coburn, equally clearly intended to physically resemble him as well. However, in the book, which is narrated in the first person, his name is never mentioned at all. In "The Dain Curse", as well as in many of Hammett's other stories, he has come to be known simply as "The Continental Op", because he was a detective employed by the Continental Detective Agency. In Hammett's stories "The Continental Op" is invariably referred to as being 5 foot 6 inches tall, middle-aged and a running a bit to fat; not at all the tall, dashing detective depicted in this film. However, by far the biggest problem with this film is that the original version was shown on television as a six-hour "mini-series", while the Amazon version has been edited down to three hours. The result is that this version is almost completely incomprehensible, even to those who may actually have read Hammett's intricately-plotted novel. Watching this film will leave the viewer scratching his head and wondering if he has missed something. Well, the answer is that, in fact, he literally has missed something, in fact, about half of the story. My advice is to forget this film and to read the book, you will find it infinitely more satisfying.
Review of The Dain Curse
