By the time Patricia Neal signed with Warners in 1948, the studio system had changed. Contract players were no longer given time to develop in smaller parts until they learned the craft. Jack Warner built so much publicity around Neal as the next Bette Davis and the greatest thing since Garbo, that when her second picture.The Fountainhead, did middling business, he took it out on her(instead of Rand's turgid dialogue). Warners dropped Pat's option three years into a seven-year contract. But during production, Pat met the love of her life. She was with Gary Cooper for almost four years. Decades later, when she was in despair, the love she had for Cooper brought her peace through a reconciliation with Rocky and Maria Cooper.