This filmization of John Jay Osborn Jr.s novel Paper Chase ended up one of the surprise hits of the 1973-74 movie season. Timothy Bottoms stars as Hart, a brilliant but naive Minnesota-born first-year student at the Harvard Law School. Like most of his fellow aspiring attorneys, Hart is in fearful awe of his demanding, ego-deflating instructor, Professor Kingsfield (John Houseman). He is not so much intimidated by Kingsfield, however, as to resist falling in love with the professors pretty daughter (Lindsay Wagner). An eminent theatrical and film producer, John Houseman won an Oscar for his first important film role (no, it wasnt his first film role ever; hed played an unbilled cameo in 1964s Seven Days in May), launching Houseman on a latter-day acting career wherein he spent most of his time playing variations of Kingsfield. Houseman also recreated the role for a Paper Chase TV series, which ran first on network television, then on cable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide