Framed Documents #003: House Of Games

I think I first saw David Mamet’s House Of Games as part of the excellent BBC2 strand Moviedrome (though I could have sworn I first caught it earlier than 1993 as that list would have it). I remember being struck by the coldness of the characters, and the ever decreasing circles in which they danced, as well as the sudden explosion of emotions towards the end.

It is a film about conmen. Bestselling author and psychiatrist Margaret Ford (Lindsay Crouse) is trying to break her writer’s block, and through her efforts on behalf of a troubled patient ends up being grifted by Mike (Joe Mantegna). She becomes increasingly – obsessively – interested in the art of the confidence trick, and solicits the help of an initially reluctant Mike in pursuit of her new subject matter. That’s the set-up, now guess the result…

It plays well against the bonhomie of The Sting, it matches the darkness of The Grifters, it is fresher than Mamet’s own, later, con flick The Spanish Prisoner. Watching these four films means you can avoid wading through all twenty four episodes of Hustle, which shamelessly teefs its best bits from them. In terms of performance, Mantegna is at the Homicide end of his range rather than nudging The Godfather III.

Anyway, here’s Crouse taking down some back-of-the-napkin field notes:

The necessity of dark places to transact a dark business…

• Alex Cox
• con
• confidence trick
• conmen
• David Mamet
• grifting
• Homicide
• House Of Games
• Hustle
• Joe Mantegna
• Lindsay Crouse
• Moviedrome
• The Godfather III
• The Grifters
• The Spanish Prisoner
• The Sting