THE DAIN CURSE:

THE CONTINENTAL OP TAKES ON A CULT  

After the rampant violence of Red Harvest, the Contintal Op shows a more compassionate side in this weird tale involving family curses, religious cultism, psychosis and drug addiction.

Like Red Harvest, The Dain Curse was originally spread over four issues of Black Mask, between October 1928 and January 1929.  Knopf released it in hardback the following July.  Despite considerable reworking, it remains Hammett’s most disjointed and episodic novel.

In 1978, The Dain Curse was made into a TV miniseries, which was surprisingly faithful to the book, with a few notable exceptions:

  1. The setting was no longer San Francisco.
  2. The Continental Agency was renamed the Dickerson Agency
  3. The nameless, chubby detective was transformed into mustachioed James Coburn, bearing a strong resemblance to Dash Hammett, and calling himself “Hamilton Nash.”

SAMPLES OF VARIOUS EDITIONS

 

NON-ENGLISH EDITION

French edition (details unknown)

 

AUDIO EDITIONS