INT. WYNAND’S SITTING ROOM - EVENING
Howard is shown into the sitting room where Gail and Dominique are.
GAIL WYNAND
Howard.
HOWARD
Good evening, Gail.
GAIL WYNAND
You two know each other.
DOMINIQUE
How do you do, Mr. Roark?
HOWARD
And you, Mrs. Wynand?
DOMINIQUE
Thank you for the house you designed for us. It’s one of your most beautiful.
HOWARD
If you like it, I’ve fulfilled your husband’s order.
DOMINIQUE
What was the order?
HOWARD
To design a house as a temple to you, Mrs. Wynand.
DOMINIQUE
Shall I accept it as a tribute from Gail or from you?
HOWARD
From both of us.
DOMINIQUE
I appreciate it. Particularly since I would have expected you to refuse the commission.
HOWARD
Why?
DOMINIQUE
Was there nothing in your past to make you refuse it?
HOWARD
No.
GAIL WYNAND
Thank you, Howard.
DOMINIQUE
I never expected you to forget and give in. Isn’t Mr. Roark the man you said you’d break?
GAIL WYNAND
I tried it and lost.
DOMINIQUE
Are you admitting defeat? Both of you?
GAIL WYNAND
Do you wish to call it that?
HOWARD
I think it was a victory for both of us.
DOMINIQUE
Your feeling, once granted will you ever withdraw it?
HOWARD
Never. - Have you studied the floor plans of the house? I should like to know whether the arrangement of the rooms is convenient.
DOMINIQUE
The rooms?
GAIL WYNAND
Yes. The living room will open to a terrace over the lake. Did you notice the windows of our room? We’ll get the first sunlight in the morning.
DOMINIQUE
You think I could ever live in that house?
HOWARD
Why not?
DOMINIQUE
I can’t. Please. Don’t ask me to live in it.
GAIL WYNAND
Why not? Dominique, what is it?
DOMINIQUE
Nothing. Only the constant reminder. - After the Enright House, we have no right.
HOWARD
Please, forget the Enright House.
DOMINIQUE
Yes, Mr. Roark.
INT. HARLEM NIGHT CLUB - NIGHT
CAB
And now ladies and gentlemen, I need your help with this one.
A crowd at one of the tables starts clapping.
CAB
Oh, you think you know it do you?
MAN AT TABLE
Minnie the Moocher!
CAB
They do know it!
The band strikes up.
CAB
Folks, here’s a story about Minnie
the Moocher
She was a red hot hoochie-choocher
She was the roughest, toughest
frail
But Minnie had a heart as big as a
whale
Hidee hidee hidee hi ...
She messed around with a bloke
named Smoky
She loved him though he was cokey
He took her down to Chinatown
And he showed her how to kick the
gong around
Hidee hidee hidee hi ...
She had a dream about the King of
Sweden
He gave her things that she was
needin’
He gave her a home built of gold
and steel
A diamond car with platinum wheels
Hidee hidee hidee hi ...
He gave her his townhouse and his
racing horses
Each meal she ate was a dozen
courses
She had a million dollars worth of
nickels and dimes
She sat around and counted them all
a million times
Hidee hidee hidee hi ...
Poor Min, Poor Min, Poor Min
The song ends to GREAT APPLAUSE.
Peter’s date excuses herself from the table.
PETER
Oh I’m glad I came out tonight. I needed this.
MR TOOHEY
How’s work Peter?
PETER
I don’t understand it. A few years ago I was the architect in this city. People were begging me to design this and that. Now I’m lucky to be asked to add an extension to some beach house.
MR TOOHEY
We live in a fashionable world, Peter and fashions change. The Keating look is out this season. That is all.
PETER
I wish that were it. Then I could be certain that Keating will swing back into style. No, this is about more than style; it’s about the way the world is now. I’m not even sure how to describe it ... first cars were made on the assembly line now ... everything is slowly but surely being streamlined - everything is industry and we are all but cogs...
MR TOOHEY
Been watching European cinema with the Greenwich set again?
PETER
I do sound old world, don’t I? Ignore me. - I need something new, something big...
Toohey stays silent for a moment.
MR TOOHEY
There is something... but it’s not for you.
PETER
Ellsworth you tease. Just tell me what it is, would you?
MR TOOHEY
I’m not teasing you. It isn’t something you would want and, being perfectly frank, I don’t think you could do it even if you wanted to.
PETER
What is it?
MR TOOHEY
You know Corbin Cortlandt? He has a site all set for low-cost housing.
PETER
Since when is Cortlandt a philanthropist?
MR TOOHEY
How charmingly naive of you Peter. Low cost housing has nothing to do philanthropy. There’s funding, tax reliefs and guaranteed long-term demand. And should the development prove to be less than ideal it’s usually blamed on the "low-cost" residents.
PETER
How big is the development?
MR TOOHEY
Big but that isn’t what you should be asking.
PETER
What’s the budget?
MR TOOHEY
So small I wonder if they’re planning to build it with papier maché. - It’s not for you, Peter.
PETER
Ann and I have some wonderful ideas for exactly this sort of development.
MR TOOHEY
Well, they won’t be accommodated in this development. The only ideas wanted are how to reduce costs. For it to be done right it will require a genius of functional design.
PETER
Howard Roark.
MR TOOHEY
Do you know how much profit the Enright House has generated?
PETER
Did you hear about Enright’s development in Detroit?
TOOHEY
Nothing to do with Roark. And also, for the moment at least, very profitable.
PETER
So the Cortlandt commission is going to Roark?
TOOHEY
Not a chance. Cortlandt isn’t capable of handing control of his development to someone else. He insists on adding his own personal stamp on his projects. And his taste is ghastly.
PETER
I would love to see Roark on that development.
