WB’s Feverish Film Version of ‘The Fountainhead’ 1949

The first time Patricia Neal's Dominique sees Coop's Howard Roark in action, it's with his mighty jackhammer!

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Film fans’ reactions to the movie version of The Fountainhead are as varied as those to Ayn Rand’s notorious novel. The 1949 adaptation has been called everything from a misfire to camp to a misunderstood classic. To call The Fountainhead high camp seems inadequate. In fact, you might feel high when you watch the WB melodrama, which stars Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. This movie is so bizarre on every level that I find it a highly entertaining train wreck.

The controversial rape scene from the book and movie of 'The Fountainhead.'

While The Fountainhead was a bestseller, what possessed Jack Warner to make this politicized movie when Red Scare was terrorizing Hollywood by the late ‘40s? Ayn Rand was anti-communist, but to Middle America, Rand was Russian, and you’d think Jack would want to avoid anything controversial. Once Warner committed, the big issue was how to make Rand’s 700-page tome, which wasn’t exactly Gone with the Wind, into a movie. Jack hired Rand to write the screenplay, though she had prior written just two. Rand must have had an air-tight contract, because she prevailed when director King Vidor initially wanted to delete Gary Cooper’s five-plus minute court room speech. Maybe Warner was afraid that Rand would blow up WB if he tampered with her work!

Is director King Vidor kindly explaining what the hell is going on in 'The Fountainhead?'

So, what do you get when an author boils down her mammoth book into a movie just under the two hour mark? Mad Magazine once did a Reader’s Digest parody, a one-page version of Gone with the Wind. The Fountainhead film is not far off! A major problem is the characters that are symbols for various ideologies on the page, and become caricatures when they are written bare bones for the screen. Add to the dilemma that Rand’s dialogue is mostly speechifying. Toss in characters that make hairpin turns regarding their life decisions or bombastic beliefs. The result?

Does Cooper's Howard think Neal's Dominique just has a crack in her marble,
 or has lost her marbles?

I’ll give you MY Reader’s Digest version of The Fountainhead: Struggling architect Howard Roark has two strikes against him—his uncompromising values and unique architectural vision. These qualities bring out extreme reactions in others, such as egomaniacal columnist Ellsworth Toohey, rich dabbler Dominique Francon, and pompous publisher Gail Wynand. Every time Howard gets a foot hold in the building world, it’s two steps back. What success he has only inflames his enemies. Gradually, Roark’s love/hate relationship with Dominique turns to love, and he even befriends her husband, Gail. Howard’s extreme reaction to change made to a housing complex he designed leads to a near-operatic climax.

Dominique loves Howard's blueprints, but his jackhammer even more!

It’s hard to judge the acting, as the cast is given crazed characters and dialogue to play. Let’s just say the stars don’t help matters. Gary Cooper was massively miscast as Howard Roark. Coop was 47 during filming and like many stars of his era, looked prematurely aged. The solution to the early scenes, when Roark is a college lad, is to photograph him with his back to the camera, in silhouette. This makes the other characters haranguing of Coop’s shadow with expository dialogue especially hilarious. We get our first look at Gary when he’s finally hired, photographed in long shot, leaving at the door.

Unfortunately, at 47, Gary Cooper looks like Indiana Jones on his last crusade.

Still, when Coop gives Pat the look, it's pretty hot!

Overall, Gary Cooper was a fine film actor. He performed well in a variety of film genres and his understated performing style has aged well. Coop was also subtly charismatic, incredibly handsome in his youth, and despite his weathered appearance, still appealing through his film career. Proof of the latter: 22-year-old Patricia Neal fell madly in love with him. Coop is fine as usual in the romantic and more personal scenes. But as soon as Gary has to give a Rand rant, Coop sounds like he’s reading his lines phonetically. The courtroom defense speech that Roark gives is supposed to be so moving and eloquent that the jury finds him not guilty—Cooper’s halting line readings make you question Roark’s competency.

As Dominique, does Patricia Neal have crazy eyes or only eyes for hubby Raymond Massey? 

On the other end of the acting spectrum is Patricia Neal. This was one of Neal’s first films and supposed to make her WB’s new Bette Davis. Unfortunately, King Vidor directs Patricia the same way he directed the old Bette Davis that same year, in Beyond the Forest! Vidor lets novice Neal go way over the top, just as he let Davis overplay her neurotic character. Neal rolls her eyes, tosses her hair, snaps her lines, and so much more as the slightly deranged Dominique. Unlike other actresses, Neal’s latter husky voice is more appealing than hers as a young actress. Neal sounds clipped and metallic here, much like the ‘30s Katharine Hepburn. Like Cooper, Neal’s best in the quiet, romantic moments, and their chemistry is quite evident. Also, Patricia Neal rarely looked so lovely on film. Neal is photographed beautifully, styled simply, and her 5’ 8” figure looks lovely in Milo Anderson’s costumes (minus the white ermine-trimmed bosom number!).

Robert Douglas has a hammy field day as evil architecture columnist Ellsworth Toohey.

Robert Douglas as Ellsworth Toohey, nemesis to Howard Roark, is outrageously hammy and amusing. Toohey is an architecture columnist who despises individualism and seeks unlimited power—quite a jump from critiquing skyscrapers. Toohey’s column is called “One Small Voice,” though “One Big Blowhard” would have been more apt. The character comes off like All About Eve’s Addison DeWitt off his meds. Toohey is obsessed with mankind being made servile and selfless, not himself, natch. He seeks to destroy individualist Howard. Reynolds has a field day, blowing cigarette smoke heavenward after smoking Roark at every turn. Inexplicably, Reynolds is dressed like a dandy from the previous century, not the late 1940s. If he had a monocle, he’d look like Mr. Peanut! 

Also maddening: what IS Toohey’s end game? The character is so unctuous and unlikeable, yet you’re supposed to believe that “The Banner’s” big newsroom staff walked out in protest of his firing. Why are the masses enthralled by this Clifton Webb wannabe? I think one prophetic point that Rand touches on is the cult of celebrity and the cunning use of it over the masses. We have certainly been living in that world for awhile. The thing is, for as many followers as certain TV political pundits have, equally as many despise them.

Henry Hull, just over a decade older than youngster Gary Cooper, plays his wizened mentor in 'The Fountainhead.'

Henry Hull is a hoot as Roark’s mentor, Henry Cameron, another architect who won’t compromise. Hull so overplays that he seems schizophrenic rather than eccentric. Hull dies in the first 15 minutes, but not before he rails at Roark, rips up newspapers snatched from a paperboy, and gives an ambulance deathbed aria.

Raymond Massey pompously plays the pompous news publisher in 'The Fountainhead.'

Raymond Massey plays yet another overbearing role as newspaper mogul Gail Wynand. The grandiose lines further make Massey look like a total gasbag. He smugly recalls how he pulled himself up from the bootstraps in Hell’s Kitchen, but his patrician tones suggest otherwise. His character goes through several about faces, the last of which is especially unbelievable. After defending Roark to the hilt, his paper in ruins, then he suddenly gives in when the board of directors threaten to fire him.

WB's Kent Smith plays Peter Keating, yet another pleasant but spineless role for the actor.
Here, he's under the thumb of Reynolds' ruthless Ellsworth Toohey.

Kent Smith, WB’s resident player of wimps, is weakling architect Peter Keating. The character becomes a success through compromise, and then is twisted like a pretzel by most of the other characters. Though younger than Cooper, Smith wasn’t exactly a spring chicken here, sporting a buzz cut for his ‘college years.’

The cinematography and production values are the real star of 'The Fountainhead.'

The best thing about The Fountainhead is the production values of the movie. Depicting great wealth and stupendous architecture, frugal WB stretched the dollars, but used imaginative ways to put it over. First is Robert Burks cinematography. There are moments that remind me of Citizen Kane, which also had to come up with ingenious ways to portray extreme wealth. Some of the scenes and sets are simple, made vivid by contrast of stark light and shadows. The art direction by Edward Carrere and set decoration by William L. Kuehl is top notch, in tandem with Burks’ camera work. Max Steiner’s score is typically dramatic, but for the romantic scenes, his music is most subtle.

Patricia Neal looks skyward to Gary Cooper in the finale of 'The Fountainhead.'

The Fountainhead found King Vidor right in the middle of his baroque period. Vidor had already directed the operatic western Duel in the Sun for David Selznick. In 1949, he performed the double header of The Fountainhead and Beyond the Forest, which amazingly didn’t end his contract at WB. The last of his manic movies was 1952’s Ruby Gentry, with Jennifer Jones as a lusty swamp girl.

Who decided this was an appropriately flattering last shot of Coop in 'The Fountainhead?'

The ending of The Fountainhead conveniently makes Massey go away, finds Neal’s Dominique looking radiant as she looks up, riding to the top of Roark’s latest project. Coop stands waiting, hands on his hips like Superman, looking unflatteringly down. Yet, if Cooper’s Roark had swooped down and flown away with Neal’s Dominique, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised. Enjoy every moment or avoid at all cost!

If 'The Fountainhead' gives you a headache, take this!