Rent The Paper Chase (1973)

Pink Flesh and Yellow Notepads - The Paper Chase review by CH

How well known is The Paper Chase (1973) these days? The title refers to first-year Law students who are eager to stay the course at Harvard. As such, they are beholden to their professor, a steely, perhaps charismatic John Houseman (the jury is out on that).

One would like to know what the film critic Philip French made of it. He once observed that, with a background in memorising all the FA Cup scores from the beginning and then doing likewise with thirty cases while studying Law at Oxford, one could gain a good degree.

In this film, Houseman takes the opposite tack; he chastises a student who claims to have a photographic memory - and the students are put through it. Among them is Timothy Bottoms; he never displays that part of himself during the recurrent shower scenes to which dorm mates have recourse after fervid discussion of possible exam questions; still less does he do so during close encounters with Lindsay Wagner who, on the point of divorce, turns out to be the professor's daughter.

Skilfully done as all this is, one's verdict has to be that it comes down on the wrong side of hokum. That said, there is a curious interest in seeing how Seventies hairstyles and beards appear in conjunction with the formal dress requested upon an invitation.

More diverting than essential.