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IMDbPro

The Fountainhead

  • 19491949
  • ApprovedApproved
  • 1h 54m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
10K
YOUR RATING
Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead (1949)
Trailer for this film adaptation of the famous Ayn Rand novel
Play trailer2:18
1 Video
45 Photos
DramaRomance
An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
10K
YOUR RATING
    • King Vidor
    • Ayn Rand(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Gary Cooper
    • Patricia Neal
    • Raymond Massey
    • King Vidor
    • Ayn Rand(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Gary Cooper
    • Patricia Neal
    • Raymond Massey
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 238User reviews
    • 39Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    The Fountainhead
    Trailer 2:18
    Watch The Fountainhead

    Photos45

    Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead (1949)
    Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead (1949)
    Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead (1949)
    Gary Cooper and Kent Smith in The Fountainhead (1949)
    Gary Cooper and Henry Hull in The Fountainhead (1949)
    "The Fountainhead" Gary Cooper 1949 Warner Brothers
    Gary Cooper between takes during the filming of "The Fountainhead" 1949 Photo by Jack Woods
    Patricia Neal Publicity photo for "Fountainhead" Warner Brothers 1949
    Patricia Neal Publicity photo for "Fountainhead" Warner Brothers 1949
    Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead (1949)
    Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead (1949)
    Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead (1949)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Gary Cooper
    Gary Cooper
    • Howard Roark
    Patricia Neal
    Patricia Neal
    • Dominique Francon
    Raymond Massey
    Raymond Massey
    • Gail Wynand
    Kent Smith
    Kent Smith
    • Peter Keating
    Robert Douglas
    Robert Douglas
    • Ellsworth M. Toohey
    Henry Hull
    Henry Hull
    • Henry Cameron
    Ray Collins
    Ray Collins
    • Roger Enright
    Moroni Olsen
    Moroni Olsen
    • Chairman
    Jerome Cowan
    Jerome Cowan
    • Alvah Scarret
    Ed Agresti
    • Rally Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    John Alban
    • Courtroom Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    Bob Alden
    • Newsboy
    • (uncredited)
    John Alvin
    John Alvin
    • Young Intellectual
    • (uncredited)
    Morris Ankrum
    Morris Ankrum
    • Prosecutor
    • (uncredited)
    Lois Austin
    • Female Party Guest
    • (uncredited)
    Griff Barnett
    Griff Barnett
    • Judge
    • (uncredited)
    Edward Biby
    Edward Biby
    • Party Guest
    • (uncredited)
    George Blagoi
    George Blagoi
    • Rally Spectator
    • (uncredited)
      • King Vidor
      • Ayn Rand(screenplay) (novel)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      King Vidor originally hoped to cast Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in the lead roles, but Ayn Rand insisted on Gary Cooper in the lead. Bacall was cast opposite Cooper, but dropped out before filming began. Hoping the film would make her a star, Warner Bros cast a relative unknown, 22-year-old Patricia Neal, after considering and then rejecting Bette Davis, Ida Lupino, Alexis Smith, and Barbara Stanwyck as replacements for Bacall. Cooper objected to Neal being cast, but during filming, Cooper and Neal began an affair.
    • Goofs
      When Howard and Dominique first speak to each other, they do so in a normal voice, despite the distance between them and over the quarry's noise.
    • Quotes

      Howard Roark: [delivering the closing statements of his own defense] Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived of, and he lifted darkness off the earth. Through out the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. The great creators, the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors, stood alone against the men of their time. Every new thought was opposed. Every new invention was denounced. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered, and they paid - but they won.

      Howard Roark: No creator was prompted by a desire to please his brothers. His brothers hated the gift he offered. His truth was his only motive. His work was his only goal. His work, not those who used it, his creation, not the benefits others derived from it. The creation which gave form to his truth. He held his truth above all things, and against all men. He went ahead whether others agreed with him or not. With his integrity as his only banner. He served nothing, and no one. He lived for himself. And only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things which are the glory of mankind. Such is the nature of achievement.

      Howard Roark: Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. But the mind is an attribute of the individual, there is no such thing as a collective brain. The man who thinks must think and act on his own. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot not be subordinated to the needs, opinions, or wishes of others. It is not an object of sacrifice.

      Howard Roark: The creator stands on his own judgment. The parasite follows the opinions of others. The creator thinks, the parasite copies. The creator produces, the parasite loots. The creator's concern is the conquest of nature - the parasite's concern is the conquest of men. The creator requires independence, he neither serves nor rules. He deals with men by free exchange and voluntary choice. The parasite seeks power, he wants to bind all men together in common action and common slavery. He claims that man is only a tool for the use of others. That he must think as they think, act as they act, and live is selfless, joyless servitude to any need but his own. Look at history. Everything thing we have, every great achievement has come from the independent work of some independent mind. Every horror and destruction came from attempts to force men into a herd of brainless, soulless robots. Without personal rights, without personal ambition, without will, hope, or dignity. It is an ancient conflict. It has another name: the individual against the collective.

      Howard Roark: Our country, the noblest country in the history of men, was based on the principle of individualism. The principle of man's inalienable rights. It was a country where a man was free to seek his own happiness, to gain and produce, not to give up and renounce. To prosper, not to starve. To achieve, not to plunder. To hold as his highest possession a sense of his personal value. And as his highest virtue, his self respect. Look at the results. That is what the collectivists are now asking you to destroy, as much of the earth has been destroyed.

      Howard Roark: I am an architect. I know what is to come by the principle on which it is built. We are approaching a world in which I cannot permit myself to live. My ideas are my property. They were taken from me by force, by breach of contract. No appeal was left to me. It was believed that my work belonged to others, to do with as they pleased. They had a claim upon me without my consent. That is was my duty to serve them without choice or reward. Now you know why I dynamited Cortlandt. I designed Cortlandt, I made it possible, I destroyed it. I agreed to design it for the purpose of seeing it built as I wished. That was the price I set for my work. I was not paid. My building was disfigured at the whim of others who took all the benefits of my work and gave me nothing in return. I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy, nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim. It had to be said. The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing. I came here to be heard. In the name of every man of independence still left in the world. I wanted to state my terms. I do not care to work or live on any others. My terms are a man's right to exist for his own sake.

    • Connections
      Featured in Hollywood Mavericks (1990)

    User reviews238

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    The Fountainhead review
    King Vidor's overblown melodrama dives right into its theme with a blunt lack of subtlety in its opening scenes, and proceeds, with near-hysterical campness, to hammer it home with barbed dialogue that amounts to nothing more than a series of speeches. Gary Cooper is the uncompromising architect who refuses to conform, and Patricia Neal the sexually frustrated columnist turned on by the way he handles his drill. Raymond Massey's character, a newspaper mogul who has given no thought to journalistic integrity in his quest for power, does have moments of interest, but the endless posturing of all the characters - all of whom are unlikable - quickly becomes tiresome.
    helpful•6
    0
    • JoeytheBrit
    • Jul 2, 2020

    Details

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    • Release date
      • July 2, 1949 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Fresno, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Warner Bros.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 54 minutes
      • Black and White

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