The Molly Maguires (1970)

In the Pennsylvanian coal mines of 1876, a group of Irish immigrant workers begin to retaliate against the cruelty of their work environment.

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. Another 1 nomination.

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 immigrant 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:

pennsylvania | sabotage | repression | workers | 19th century | 

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Certificate:

M

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 May 1970 (UK)

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

According to Shane R. Burridge's IMDb review for the film, the real-life Molly Maguire person "was a peasant girl in seventeenth century Ireland, who supposedly led an uprising against rent collectors." Hence, the connection with the group, and title "The Molly Maguires", as the miners rebel and dress up as women.

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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

[first lines]
Detective James McParlan: Lager

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Connections

Edited into Wildside: Delinquency of a Miner (1985)

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Soundtracks

Cockles and Mussels
Traditional Irish Song

User Reviews

Ring of Gaelic Authenticity

According to the Films of Sean Connery, the genesis of The Molly Maguires was a visit to the set of Director Martin Ritt;s Hombre in which Connery's then wife Diane Cilento was in the cast. Ritt had the idea for The Molly Maguires back then and asked Connery if he'd give him the commitment. Connery was intrigued and said yes. But it took over four years to get the project rolling.

The Molly Maguires has the ring of authenticity to it because Martin Ritt chose to shoot it in an almost abandoned Pennsylvania coal town of Ecksley. Filming the story in a place where the Molly Maguires were active lends a lot of credibility to the film.

The Mollys were a secret cell within the Catholic fraternal society of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The Irish immigrants spread all over America and a good deal of them arrived in the Pennsylvania coal country where they became miners. A trade not unknown in Ireland as that country has considerable deposits of the stuff.

The workers were terribly exploited, having to live in the company town, buy at the company store, and pay for damaged equipment. That together with the health problems we know now about in the mining industry.

There was no organized labor movement yet and the Mollys were at times the only protections those miners had. They'd be considered terrorists now, but an important thing to remember is that unlike today's terrorists, their acts of violence were never random.

One thing I did like was the fact that the company policeman were Protestant and Welsh. That was the generation who were the previous people in the mines. The next generation of coal miners were from Eastern Europe, but that's getting ahead of ourselves. The ethnic conflicts are quite explicit in this film.

Richard Harris plays James McParlan another Irish immigrant sent by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to infiltrate and destroy the Mollys. Connery is Jack Kehoe the leader of them and very suspicious of Harris when he first arrives to work at the mines.

The story as told in the film sticks pretty close to the truth of what happened in Pennsylvania in the 1870s. Informers are not a group that's looked up to in any culture, but the Irish traditionally do have a special disdain for them.

The film is a clash between two men, Harris who wants to rise in class and willing to sell anyone out to do it and Connery whose methods maybe wrong, but has the genuine interest of his fellow miners at heart. After the business in Pennsylvania is concluded and after the action of this film, the real McParlan rose high in the Pinkerton agency, but his name was an anathema among his own people.

The Molly Maguires is a well crafted piece of cinema that unfortunately failed to find an audience back in 1970. Today it's considered a masterpiece and deservedly so.