Lindsay Crouse, the pre-Rebecca Pidgeon Mrs. Mamet, stars as a best-selling pop shrink who pays a visit to a backroom casino because a patient indebted to its manager has threatened suicide. The cardsharp, Mike (Joe Mantegna), agrees to wipe away the mark's tab if, in exchange, she'll sit in on a high stakes game of poker, watching a wily player for his "tell:" the subtle shift in body language that gives away the nature of a hand. Thereafter, she becomes fixated on Mike's profession (he's a con-man by trade) and asks him to be the subject of a new book. A spark of sexual chemistry between them might also explain her fascination.

For the first little while, House of Games reminds us of a page-turner or--what Mamet does best--a powerhouse play. The poker match is sharp and edge-of-your-seat; but even it is undone by Mamet's sub-Hitchcockian visual unambiguity. Both his framing and his tendency to hold a shot too long turn old-fashioned reveals into silent-era theatrics. When, for example, the psychiatrist realizes that she's being threatened with a water pistol, Mamet shows us the dripping barrel, then an extreme close-up of her eyes, and then he goes back to the gun again for emphasis. It is this type of prosaicism that Mamet preaches in his published compilation of lecture transcripts, the thankfully recyclable On Directing.

The stilted manner in which he tells it eventually renders the slippery plot very easy to predict, save the sorry conclusion. Even in terms of writing alone, Mamet bungles the climax: it's clever but not witty, fulfilling yet unsatisfying. We've been led to expect, or, at least, desire, a hoodwink of Houdini-esque proportions; Mamet insinuates that the confidence business is magic for grown-ups, but he's not showman enough to make that an enticing notion. What's left to appreciate is some very good, naturalistic dialogue shredded, all around, by a literal approach to its delivery. Crouse, so good during her recent stint on "Buffy the Vampire Slyer", suggests a quizzical alien more than a doctor. Mantegna and company aren't much better.

MGM's House of Games DVD contains one of their better--and, apparently, last--non-anamorphic widescreen transfers, in addition to an unmatted presentation on the flipside. Letterboxed at 1.85:1, colours are subtle and stable and contrast is generally good. The image is slightly soft and lacks deep blacks, but it's no disaster on the order of the studio's release of another mid-eighties Orion acquisition, Back to School. The 2.0 Dolby Digital mono sound is acceptable. A trailer is the only supplement. Curiously, though the film is chapter-encoded, the time-search option has been disabled.-Bill Chambers