The Molly Maguires
by Martin Ritt
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DVD details
Actor: Anthony Zerbe, Frank Finlay, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar, Sean ConneryDirector: Martin Ritt
Brand: Paramount
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Digital Sound, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 124 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-04-27
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of The Molly Maguires
DVD Review: Roonie
Summary: 5 Stars
We live in Bangor, Pa. and love to go to Jim Thorpe, Pa. We have toured the jailwhere the Molly Maquires were hung. We are also Irish and found this movie phenominal.DVD Review: Background for Family History
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the DVD of Molly Maguires (1970) to study the branch of my family from eastern Pennsylvania. Much of this film was made in Eckley, Carbon County, where my great-grandmother was born in 1862. My great-grandfather was born in Minersville, Schuylkill County in 1859. He was in charge of the mules that pulled wagon-loads of coal in the mines. The action of the film opens in 1876.
Jack Kehoe (Sean Connery) and three other miners commit acts of violence against the mine-owners' property. A long strike had failed to better their pay and working conditions. Detective James McParlan (Richard Harris) charms his way into the inner circle to gather evidence against this secret society. To show that he is committed to their cause, McParlan beats up a superintendent so badly that he dies. In retaliation, mining police shoot one of the leaders and his wife, both asleep in bed. Eventually, the three other leaders are tried and convicted of murder with McParlan as chief witness.
Although there is a romance between McParland and Miss Mary Raines (Samantha Eggar), the real emotional bonding is between Kehoe and McParlan. McParlan feels the injustices the miners suffer, but he ultimately sides with law and order. This well-plotted tragedy was a commercial failure and did not advance the careers of Connery and Harris.
Artistically, however, the film has many gripping scenes. During the long opening sequence when the four "Mollies" light a long fuse deep in the mine, we wonder if they will reach ground level before the explosion goes off. At a secret meeting when the four tell McParlan to kneel down, we wonder if they are going to shoot him for being a spy. When Kehoe takes a suit from the company store for Mary Raines' dead father, we wonder if McParlan will stop the robbery.
The real Jack Kehoe was not a miner, but the owner of a saloon. In the film, the bartender is played by Malachy McCourt, brother of Frank, the author of "Angela's Ashes." At the urging of a great-grandson, Jack Kehoe was pardoned in 1979 by Milton Shapp, then Governor of Pennsylvania. (Some material from Wikipedia.)
DVD Review: The Molly Maguires
Summary: 3 Stars
It's an interesting story of what happened during the time of the coal barrons and how horribly the miners were treated. However, it seriously lacks any excitement and I found myself wondering when it was going to end. I love the cast, but I really think the director could have made better use of their talent.
DVD Review: Portrait of the cruel labor conditions in 19th century America
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been a union man all my life, as was my father and mother who was the daughter of a mine worker from Eastern Europe.
The Molly Maguires shows an accurate picture of the hard life these people faced and how the mine owners schemed to keep them poor and virtual slaves in company towns. Sean Connery and Richard Harris, along with Samantha Eggar and other Celtic actors do a fine job of showing how the workers pushed back against their mine-owner masters. The media of the time called them murderers, but in truth, the wretched conditions in the mine towns killed far more than the Mollies ever did. I've often thought that Sean Connery was good as James Bond, but he grew into a seasoned actor playing in this film.
This film is well worth your time.
DVD Review: ACTOR RICHARD HARRIS PORTRAYS JAMES MCKENNA WHO INFILTRATED MY GRANDFATHER JOHN MCKENNA'S GRANDFATHER PATRICK MCKENNA'S FAMILY
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is slow moving and grimly realistic. Although it
was unsuccessful during its original Hollywood release it is an
accurate rendition of the life of coal miners in 1800's Pennsylvania.
The Molly Maguires were an immigrant Irish terrorist group
who were concentrated in such coal mining locations as Carbon and Schuylkill and a few other counties throughout Pennsylvania in the 1860's and 1870's.
Sean Connery dominated early James Bond movies so thoroughly
that it misleadingly seems like he is relegated to second-fiddle
status in this interesting film. This movie is the direct antithesis of a James Bond movie. Do not make the mistake of subconsciously rating this film low because it doesn't live up to James Bond movie standards! This may be the only Hollywood movie to ever explore the Molly Maguires topic.
Actor Richard Harris portrays an Irish immigrant named
James McParlan who assumes the false imposter identity of a James McKenna
in order to infiltrate the Molly Maguires organization and convict
them of murder.
In reality my deceased grandfather John Aloysius McKenna's grandfather was Patrick McKenna who was an immigrant from the city of Castlereagh in County Donegal, Ireland. Patrick owned a saloon called "McKenna's" in Summit Hill, Pennsylvania (a few miles outside of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania in Carbon County). My great-great grandfather Patrick McKenna was convicted in 1876 for being an accomplice in the murder of Welsh coal mining supervisor Morgan Powell. Patrick's brother-in-law Thomas P. Fisher (brother of my great-great grandmother Bridget Fisher McKenna) was one of twenty men who were hung after his conviction in the Molly Maguire murder trials although he denied being guilty all the way to the gallows.
Actor Richard Harris's reenactment of a fictional James McKenna represented my real McKenna ancestors. Coincidentally my great-grandfather's name was James McKenna (he was one of Patrick McKenna's sons). My McKenna family is also described in detail in the book by
Allan Pinkerton entitled "The Mollie Maguires and the Detective" which was first published in 1877.
Description of The Molly Maguires
A pennsylvania company plants a spy among an irish coal miners secret society of saboteurs. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 03/22/2005 Starring: Sean Connery Samantha Eggar Run time: 124 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Martin RittAn expensive box-office flop when released in 1970, The Molly Maguires can now be appreciated as a compelling drama with potent political undertones. The talent involved is first-rate all the way: In addition to the volatile teaming of Sean Connery and Richard Harris on opposite sides of a Pennsylvania miners' war, director Martin Ritt and screenwriter Walter Bernstein were at the height of their Hollywood powers, determined to give viewers a visceral, grittily authentic drama about the exploitation of Irish immigrant miners in the centennial America of 1876. Connery's secret gang, the Molly Maguires, retaliates by destroying mines and equipment; Harris infiltrates the group as an informer hired by the coal-company owners, leading to his inevitable crisis of conscience. Pub brawls and manly action give the film its meat-and-potatoes appeal, and discerning viewers will appreciate the story's careful pacing and moral ambiguity; ironically, those qualities were blamed for the film's commercial failure. --Jeff Shannon
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