The Fountainhead*

The Fountainhead

Directed by King Vidor. 114 mins. (1949)

Gary Cooper – Howard Roark

An uncompromising modernist architect defies convention and public opinion to pursue his visionary designs, refusing to sacrifice his artistic integrity despite mounting personal and professional costs.

Also starring Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith, Robert Douglas, and Henry Hull.

Based on Ayn Rand’s 1943 bestselling novel and adapted by the author herself, the film cast Gary Cooper at Rand’s insistence over studio preference for Humphrey Bogart. Roark’s climactic courtroom speech was among the longest delivered on screen at the time.

MARIA’S NOTES

Ayn Rand, adored by many, disliked by many. Her philosophy and persona I find abhorrent. One of her famous novels, The Fountainhead, became the movie vehicle for my father to star in - playing a loosely reminiscent characterization of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In her novel, the character Howard Roark, adheres to her “philosophy of man as a heroic being with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life.” This is just so opposite to everything Gary Cooper stood for - it was a most curious artistic stretch for my father to portray that kind of person - someone whose life glorified selfish individualism. Just about the opposite as you could get from Mr. Deeds or Meet John Doe

Roark is a ruthless character and Ayn Rand insisted that Gary Cooper was the only person she wanted to play the role. Warner Brothers, who produced the film, originally thought of Humphrey Bogart to play my father’s part as they felt he could portray a man more fanatical and extreme. But he did not cut the mustard with Ayn Rand as she wanted the romantic figure that Gary Cooper represented - and she called the shots even to the point of writing the script herself. She was able to intimidate Warner Brothers and it was quite amazing that the film in those days got released because of quite sexually exploitive and violent scenes which the censors tried to curtail. 

It was only the second film for the budding young actress Patricia Neal who fit the role of Dominique Francon, a sexually aggressive woman who is a manipulator, seducer and a destroyer. The relationship on screen between Howard and Dominique was volcanic and in many cases very over the top. The film, at the time, received very poor reviews but somehow through the years it has become a kind of cult classic.

Maria Cooper Janis