Yes, but they made cuts in it she didn't like. She wouldn't grant the right to make a movie of AS unless she had control over cuts, and no producer would give her that. Probably just as well; would she have allowed Galt's speech to reduced to anything remotely reasonable for a movie?

Gary Cooper was horribly miscast as Roark and it left out a ton (of necessity, given time constraints,) but otherwise it was an ok adaptation.

Rand based Toohey on Harold Laski, an Oxford-infected Brit.
Robert Douglas, a RADA-trained Brit, was the actor who played Toohey.
I think he made perfect sense.

I saw the movie about 10 years ago on TMC ( I think). Having previously read the book I found the movie enjoyable. Don't think it would have been as good the other way around.

Just like Anglo-Saxon eddas.
They're better read or told as tales.
Guess that's why as much as I love Tolkein's books, I really dislike the movies.

Probably no one who would want to either for reasons of:
a) philosophical disagreement, or
b) survival of their career.

Sometimes the written word is not intended to ever be dialog.

Agreed, although I don't think there's an actor today that could deliver it.

Even I wouldn't go to the theater to see Galt's speech in its entirety. ;^)
(I did go to the theater to see AS III. I was overseas when ASI and ASII were in US theaters and they were not available there.)

But it IS a romance - it's all about falling in love with self interest. ;)

The Fountainhead film was my first introduction to Ayn Rand's work.
In spite of the film's limitations, I was hungry for more. Some time later a friend recommended that I read Atlas Shrugged.
I loaned him a copy of the Fountainhead film to watch.
He has built a number of buildings since then.

Ingrid Bergman could have done the role justice, imo.
She was attractive enough to turn Roark's head, unlike Neal.

I've never been a big Patricia Neal fan. As I was reading the book, I just thought she doesn't have the level of beauty described. Lauren Bacall would have been better, in my opinion.

one of my favorites, but I prefer the book. Been madly in love with Dominique forever. :)

I can't disagree with all you say here, but I still liked the movie in general. I thought Patricia Neal was a bit "wooden" or robotic playing Dominique and I thought the same watching her in "The Day The Earth Stood Still". IMHO, she gets that blank stare like she's concentrating on remembering her lines instead of saying them more naturally like would be expected from an actress on the big screen.

I thought the Roark character was lackluster, Dominique too self-pitying, and Toohey too aristocratic for their roles. I'd imagined some shabby "intellectual," such as Bernie Sanders, in the Toohey role

I hope he meant "liberal" in the 19th century sense rather than the 20th/21st.

Some info about sites like primewire.

https://vpnoverview.com/unblocking/st...

https://primewire.mx/watch-movie/watc...

Not sure whether that is legal or not, but plays well.

I have The Fountainhead on DVD. Watching the movie seems like a synopsis of the book.

It's so strange to think of it as a "love story" as that is typically defined these days, but I think I see what you mean when you say "romantic fiction as Ayn Rand defined it." I must say I much prefer her definition.

I own the film on videotape that plays on my antique computer. And yes, it is romantic fiction as Ayn Rand defined it. In her inimitable style, the romance is embedded in a philosophical/political/intellectual plot line of heroes and villains personifying Rand's values. I can't see any actor other than Gary Cooper in the lead role. I love the last line: "Mrs. Roark."

Suboptimal