The Dain Curse

I saw this at my dad's last winter, but didn't get around to watching it. The Dain Curse was a 5-hour TV mini-series, based on a story by Dashiel Hammet, starring James Coburn. That latter fact being the reason I was interested in watching it.

Coburn is Hamilton Nash, private eye, sent by an insurance company to investigate the theft of some diamonds they loaned to a Mr. Leggett, who they hoped could devise a process to artificially color the diamonds, so as to make them appear more rare (and expensive). Nash tears that scam down right quickly, but in the process, he uncovers a succession of strange twists. The Leggett family has some ugly history, and Mrs Leggett (formerly Alice Dain) believes both she and her daughter Gabrielle are cursed to bring death and doom down upon all those close to them. They're cursed somehow, you see.

And certainly, people close to Gabrielle turn up dead with remarkable frequency. Her parents, her family doctor, that deluded messianic leader of the Church of the Holy Grail, her husband, that crotchety guy living out in the boonies. Nash seems to be the only one impervious, and I was a surprised at just how little actual danger he finds himself in. I guess I expected he'd at least get clocked on the noggin a few times, but not really.

Which would seem to put a lie to Gabrielle's fears that everyone close to her will die, considering she spends more time in Nash's arms than anyone else's (certainly more than her fiance then husband's). It's a bit creepy frankly, considering the age gap - which Nash alludes to - because I can't quite decide what the story is going for between them. Mutual romantic attraction, or one-sided? More of a father-daughter thing (Gabrielle didn't care for her father much, small wonder)? Could be curiosity on Nash's part, since Gabrielle sits at the heart of a riddle, and he isn't inclined to accept "curse" as an explanation for what's happening.

Occasional creepiness of that relationship aside, I like Coburn's performance as Nash. He can bring a harsh tone into his voice when needed, both loud, blustery anger, and that sharper, colder kind, that really hurts a person. At the same time, he has a jovial enough personality to carry off the witty repartee and one-liners you need for a role like this. The rest of the cast does well enough, though no one jumps out. I feel I should say more about Nancy Addison, who plays Gabrielle, considering how central she is to the story. But she spends most of her time alternating between hysterics and this disconnected, dreamlike state. She's very good at making that shift quickly when need be, though.

I would have preferred if they'd opted for more, shorter chapters. As it was, each chapter was about 95 minutes, and it started to drag after the first hour.

'I thought we agreed: No bodies.'
'You agreed. I never interfere with nature.'