WHEN ALL IS said and done, very little is said and done in The Paper Chase. The dialogue is trite and the action sluggish; only those fascinated by the machinations of Harvard Law School might expect to enjoy the film.

But there's the catch. If you are fascinated by the Law School and expect The Paper Chase to be a documentary, you lose. As writer/director James Bridges admits, and Law School Dean Albert Sacks insists the film is only a superficial treatment of life in Langdell and Austin Halls.

Bridges might have shown the Law School experience for what it is these days. Given his talented cast and the freedom that Twentieth Century Fox apparently gave him, he might have produced a useful and entertaining film. Instead, he uses the foibles of first-year student James Hart (Timothy Bottoms) to bombard us with incidents that are out of date, out of character, or both. (Out of date: The film opens with Hart, harassed by a professor in his first class, throwing up his breakfast into the swirling waters of the nearest toilet bowl. Out of character: The film ends with Hart, triumphant at having beaten the professor and survived his first year, throwing an unopened letter containing his hard-won grades into the swirling waters of the Atlantic.)

Beleagured admissions officials at the Law School should appreciate the bleak picture Bridges paints of the academic grind. "All that stuff about grades is true," Hart's adviser tells him. "You gotta work like hell, no kidding." Hart's friend Kevin, who does work like hell but flunks nevertheless, attempts suicide. Such is the stuff of daily life, the film seems to say.

THE SCRAMBLE FOR excellence is made more difficult--and for some, impossible--by the likes of Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. Kingsfield conducts his contract law course--the only one shown in session--using an inquisitional version of the Socratic method.

"In my class there is always another question, another question to follow your answer," Kingsfield warns the class in characteristically icy tones. "Yes, you are on a treadmill." Writer/director Bridges glibly tells screening audiences that therein lies the key to the saga: Life is one series of unanswered questions.

To Bridges' credit, he had the judgement to cast and the stamina to convince John Houseman to play the haughty Kingsfield. The performance is excellent--laced with enough memorable lines (he's the only character who has any) and convincing glares to win an Oscar. Houseman, who is 71, has appeared in only one other film. He is better known as a producer (The Bad and the Beautiful, Lust for Life) and the co-founder (with Orson Welles) of The Mercury Theatre.

Walking home from a Mass Ave pizza shop one night, Hart meets Kingsfield's daughter Susan (Lindsay Wagner), who says she is being followed and asks him to escort her to the next block. Romance, of course, ensues, providing some of the film's dumber moments (such as a romp through snowy Harvard Stadium a la Love Story).

Susan doesn't tell Hart she is Kingsfield's daughter. When he finds out, he gets mad. They fight. They make up. They plan a week-end at the Cape, but Hart cancels it to research a supplement for Kingsfield's new book. They fight again--in a supermarket this time. Susan tells Hart that he's taking school too seriously, that he's just chasing a piece of paper, nothing more. Waving a roll of toilet paper, she says his diploma is just another kind of paper, "no different from this."

"I wish you would flunk," she screams. "There might be some hope for you." He doesn't flunk. He gets As. They make up.

The ads for The Paper Chase compare the film with The Graduate, Goodbye Columbus, Summer of '42, and The Last Picture Show. It's a pretentious, if typical, PR device. There are moments when the film seems as though it belongs in such fast company, but they are rare and due almost entirely to flashes of superb acting from Houseman and Bottoms. (Bottoms, says Bridges, is one of the few actors so expressive that you can film his thoughts).

Ultimately, The Paper Chase fails because it is poor entertainment and even worse reporting. A movie about Harvard Law School could have been good. With Bottoms and Houseman, it might have been great. Unfortunately, Bridges has produced instead an entirely forgetable film.