The Fountainhead (1949)
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 12
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Release Date: Jul 2, 1949 Wide
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 3,920
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Movie Info
The hero of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is Howard Roark (Gary Cooper), a fiercely independent architect obviously patterned after Frank Lloyd Wright. Rather than compromise his ideals, Roark takes menial work as a quarryman to finance his projects. He falls in love with heiress Dominique (Patricia Neal), but ends the relationship when he has the opportunity to construct buildings according to his own wishes. Dominique marries a newspaper tycoon (Raymond Massey) who at first conducts a vitriolic
Jul 2, 1949 Wide
Nov 7, 2006
Criterion Collection
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Cast
-
Gary Cooper
Howard Roark -
Patricia Neal
Dominique Francon -
Raymond Massey
Gail Wynand -
Kent Smith
Peter Keating -
Henry Hull
Henry Cameron -
Robert Douglas
Ellsworth M. Toohey -
Ray Collins
Roger Enright -
Moroni Olsen
Chairman -
Jerome Cowan
Alvah Scarret -
Paul Harvey
A Businessman -
Harry Woods
Superintendent -
Paul Stanton
The Dean -
John Alvin
Young Intellectual -
Morris Ankrum
Prosecutor -
Louis Austin
Woman Guest -
Griff Barnett
Judge -
Dorothy Christy
Society Woman -
Tristram Coffin
Secretary -
Ann Doran
Secretary -
John Doucette
Gus Webb -
Roy Gordon
Vice President -
William Haade
Worker -
Creighton Hale
Clerk -
Jonathan Hale
Guy Franchon -
Thurston Hall
Businessman -
Selmar Jackson
Official -
Fred Kelsey
Old Watchman -
Douglas Kennedy
Reporter -
Philo McCullough
Bailiff -
Paul Newlan
Policeman -
Almira Sessions
Housekeeper -
George Sherwood
Policeman -
Ruthelma Stevens
Secretary -
Tito Vuolo
Worker -
Geraldine Wall
Woman -
Harlan Warde
Young Man -
Pierre Watkin
Official -
Josephine Whittell
Hostess -
Frank Wilcox
Gordon Prescott -
Isabel Withers
Secretary -
Bob Alden
Newsboy -
Gail Bonney
Woman -
G. Pat Collins
Foreman
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All Critics (17) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (2) | DVD (3)
The Fountainhead is by turns exciting, handsome, astoundingly awkward, fully committed, untowardly relentless, very strange, and a little creepy in its compulsive watchability.
King Vidor's melodrama about individualism and creativity works better as cinema than as literature (it's based on Rand's novel).
It's the kind of dazzling film, shot in a fascinating German Expressionist style, that veers from being silly to being provocative.
It remains one of the strangest and most florid pictures of its time, possibly of all time. It's also immensely enjoyable and startlingly steamy... a stylish, fascinating curio.
Irresistibly campy Ayn Rand adaptation.
Soap opera at its finest...and glossy as a skyscraper. Coop and Neal sizzle.
Enjoyable as camp rather than as a manual for living, or even good filmmaking.
Potboiler of potboilers.
Fairly good version of the book, brilliantly stylized
Seldom has symbolism been so leaden.
Audience Reviews for The Fountainhead
Super Reviewer
-
- Ellsworth M. Toohey: Why don't you tell me what you think of me, in any words you wish?
- Howard Roark: But I don't think of you.
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Foreign Titles
- Ein Mann wie Sprengstoff (DE)
- The Fountainhead (UK)
