The Molly Maguires (1970)

Director:

Martin Ritt

Writers:

Walter Bernstein (writer)
Arthur H. Lewis (book)

Release Date:

21 August 1970 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

Life is rough in the coal mines of 1876 Pennsylvania. A secret group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires...

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Pennsylvania | Irish | Coal | Mining

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

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

MPAA:

Rated PG for violence, language and some thematic material. (2003 re-rating)

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | UK:A (1970) | UK:PG (1988) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG (re-rating) (2003) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Eckley, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Film debut of Art Lund.

Quotes:

Jack Kehoe: I'm thinking... you'd better be what we think you are.
Detective James McParlan: I'm what you think!
Jack Kehoe: 'Cause if you're not... there's no hole deep enough to hide this time.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

Soundtrack:

Eileen Aroon

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.