The Fountainhead (film)

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The Fountainhead
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	King Vidor
Produced by	Henry Blanke
Written by	Ayn Rand
Starring	Gary Cooper Patricia Neal Raymond Massey Kent Smith
Music by	Max Steiner
Cinematography	Robert Burks
Editing by	David Weisbart
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	July 2, 1949
Running time	114 min.
Country	US
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Fountainhead is a 1949 American drama film based on the book of the same name by Ayn Rand. The movie stars Gary Cooper as Howard Roark, Patricia Neal as Dominique Francon, Raymond Massey as Gail Wynand and Kent Smith as Peter Keating. The film was directed by King Vidor, with the screenplay written by Ayn Rand.

One of the most interesting things about the film is the courtroom speech that Howard Roark gives at the end of the film. Ayn Rand wrote the entire speech, and demanded that it was read exactly as she wrote it. The director, King Vidor, initially agreed, but when shooting commenced on the scene, decided to tighten it up a bit. Upon hearing this, Rand called the head of the studio demanding the whole speech be filmed. Rand won out, and Vidor filmed the entire speech. The scene goes on for nearly 6 minutes. It is one of the longest speeches ever in a feature film.