The Molly Maguires (1970)

Life is rough in the coal mines of 1876 Pennsylvania. A secret group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires, fights against the cruelty of the mining company with sabotage ... See full summary »

Director:

Martin Ritt

Writers:

Arthur H. Lewis (suggested by a book by), Walter Bernstein

Stars:

Sean Connery, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Sean Connery	...	Jack Kehoe
Richard Harris	...	Detective James McParlan
Samantha Eggar	...	Miss Mary Raines
Frank Finlay	...	Davies
Anthony Zerbe	...	Dougherty
Bethel Leslie	...	Mrs. Kehoe
Art Lund	...	Frazier
Philip Bourneuf	...	Father O'Connor
Anthony Costello	...	Frank McAndrew
Brendan Dillon	...	Mr. Raines
Frances Heflin	...	Mrs. Frazier
John Alderson	...	Jenkins
Malachy McCourt	...	Bartender
Susan Goodman	...	Mrs. McAndrew

Storyline

Life is rough in the coal mines of 1876 Pennsylvania. A secret group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires, fights against the cruelty of the mining company with sabotage and murder. A detective, also an Irish emigrant, is hired to infiltrate the group and report on its members. But on which side do his sympathies lie?

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Plot Keywords:

coal | irish | detective | pennsylvania | mining | 

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for violence, language and some thematic material

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 June 1970 (France)

Also Known As:

Odio en las entrañas

Filming Locations:

Llewellyn, Pennsylvania, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Tamm Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Though a main character and one of the first to be introduced, Jack Kehoe (played by Sean Connery) does not speak a line until the 40th minute of the film.

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Goofs

Sean Connery takes out a $1 bill which wasn't printed until 1923. The movie is supposed to take place fifty years earlier.

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Quotes

Davies: Yes, I need them caught in the act... no chance of an alibi. And not just two of them. I want the organisation. I want it smashed. Any bastard who even dreams of making trouble, I want him to wake up sweating blood at what happened to the Molly Maguires.
[McParlan starts to leave]
Davies: Not yet! I can't send you away unmarked.
[he floors McParlan with his truncheon]
Detective James McParlan: [bleeding] Well... it's a pleasure working with a man who likes his job.

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Connections

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Cockles and Mussels"
Traditional Irish Song

User Reviews

Damnation in the Pennsylvania coalfields

The Molly Maguires is the kind of film that would simply never be made today: a major studio picture about social injustice and betrayal in the coalfields of Pennsylvania in 1876 that became one of the most colossal box-office flops of all time (despite a massive budget and the presence of Sean Connery, it actually grossed even less than John Sayles' low-budget Matewan). Set in the aftermath of a failed strike where a group of miners are trying to win with dynamite what they lost with industrial action as their powerlessness turns into violent action, it's a surprisingly bitter film for a studio picture, even in the 1970s. There's no doubting that Richard Harris' infiltrator is damned. Screenwriter Walter Bernstein was blacklisted, and the experience clearly fuels much of the script. Certainly the end, where absolution is denied, recalls Abraham Polonsky's comment that he got through being blacklisted "because I knew for me one day it would end. For those who named names, it will never end."

But there's more to his script than mere words: huge sections of the film are played without dialogue – it's 15 minutes before a single word is spoken and 40 before Sean Connery speaks despite his background presence quietly dominating much of the proceedings. James Wong Howe's astounding scope photography is a major asset, quietly confident as it paints with light a real portrait of a time and place, conveying a sense of the way the pits worked in the beautifully timed establishing shots. There's real intelligence in the framing of the film, whether turning a door frame into an impromptu confessional booth or, in the haunting final shot, turning a rehearsal for one man's execution into another man's silent purgatory. Henry Mancini's score, along with The White Dawn his most beautiful and atypical, is another major plus in a seriously undervalued film.