40′s movies marathon – part 122

The Fountainhead (1949, USA, Vidor)

Now, I dislike Ayn Rand, her books, and her followers, and that includes you, all your friends, your children, and your children’s children to the seventh generation, etc. etc., (in a half-friendly family squabble sort of way), but it has to be said that this is the most intellectually interesting movie of the entire decade.  And it is an inspiring fable.  Rand’s insanities aside, her ideas here about the unshakable integrity of the individual, and what it means to take responsibility for your choices, are close to what I try to live by.  Perhaps you need to be delusional to empathize with Roark.  Perhaps I am.  Watched it all.

Samson and Delilah (1949, USA, DeMille)

Behold – a new age of Biblical epics is upon us!  As you may recall from Sunday school, Samson was the great warrior in the Book of Judges who introduced the principles of LIBERTY and FREEDOM to the DECADENT (ie. bikini-wearing) world of 1000 B.C.  Watched: 12 minutes.  I think these movies get better later.  Right?  And less campy?  At least I remember seeing one or two good ones.

Lust for Gold (1949, USA, Simon)

A legendary hidden gold mine in the mountain has attracted adventurers and murderers for generations.  They usually meet bad ends.  The plot here is unusually complex for a movie.  It shifts between two different centuries, and manages to be just as interesting in both of them.  Watched it all.