The Fountainhead (1949)

Director:

King Vidor

Writers:

Ayn Rand (screenplay)
Ayn Rand (novel)

Release Date:

2 July 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

No Man Takes What's Mine !

Plot:

An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.

Plot Keywords:

Architect | Visionary | Individualism | Jackhammer | Personal Vision

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Howard Roark
Patricia Neal	...	Dominique Francon
Raymond Massey	...	Gail Wynand
Kent Smith	...	Peter Keating
Robert Douglas	...	Ellsworth M. Toohey
Henry Hull	...	Henry Cameron
Ray Collins	...	Roger Enright
Moroni Olsen	...	Chairman
Jerome Cowan	...	Alvah Scarret

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #13358) | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

It only took 59 days to shoot the movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Roark is having his first meeting with Toohey he has a copy of the Banner in his hand. When Roark says "I read that in your column yesterday" the paper in his hands is open. The scene shifts perspective to Roark from behind and the paper is folded.

Quotes:

Howard Roark: Before you can do things for people, you must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the people! Your own work, not any possible object of your charity. I'll be glad if men who need it find a better method of living in the house I built, but that's not the motive of my work, nor my reason, nor my reward! My reward, my purpose, my life, is the work itself - my work done my way! Nothing else matters to me!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Zizek! (2005)

Too unique to dismiss

Gary Cooper is much too mature for the role of the idealistic architect, but everyone else in the cast is fine. Cooper and Patricia Neal were supposedly involved in a passionate off-camera romance at the time, and some fans of this movie insist they can detect the sparks on-screen, too. I don't, but then I find Cooper such a bore as an actor that it's hard to tell if he's breathing, let alone excited. His performance here almost ruins what could have been a brilliant adaptation of Ayn Rand's ambitious novel. Howard Roark, the architect who refuses to conform to another man's ideals (or lack of them), does not strike me as an "Aw' shucks" kind of guy, but that's pretty much the way Cooper plays him. Roark will build anything--a public housing project, a townhouse, even a gas station--as long as it's built according to his vision. He will not compromise. Cooper just doesn't possess the fire that this character requires. When he becomes impassioned ("A man who works for the sake of others is a slave"), you can almost see the cue cards reflecting in his eyes. Certainly, he doesn't feel Rand's words in his gut. On the plus side, King Vidor's visual style is imaginative, and despite a lot of pompous sermonizing and Cooper's miscasting, this is a worthwhile film simply because there are so few Hollywood productions that emphasize ideas and a man's philosophy. In a curious way, it brings to mind "Network," and other Paddy Chayefsky films.