Ayn Rand adapted her bestseller about a brilliant but penniless architect, a "foolish visionary" who builds angular, futuristic designs without compromise (and without much business), going from tragedy to triumph with his talents and never losing his self-respect in the bargain. Rand's story is not just about peer pressure, but the pressure to sell out completely--mind, body and soul. Still, her second-half plot twist, with the architect designing a building for low-income families but allowing a struggling colleague to take the credit, isn't worked out satisfactorily. Rand's writing fails to help us see the difference between the character's integrity and ego when his designs are challenged (it is assumed we will automatically side with him once he resorts to drastic measures), and Gary Cooper as an actor doesn't have enough dimensions to suggest he is anything but heroic. Still, when he's on trial and acting as his own legal counsel (!), Cooper gives a six-minute speech that left me thinking he was losing his mind--but the viewer is meant to cheer his rebelliousness against the soulless, robotized masses. Director King Vidor, apparently one of the robots, decided in post-production to remove the speech in the courtroom, but Rand and Warner Bros. successfully sided against him. Now, there's a bit of life imitating art! *** from ****