Trivia / The Molly Maguires

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $11 million. Box office, $2.2 million. It did no favors for the careers of director Martin Ritt or stars Sean Connery and Richard Harris. However, it did contribute greatly to the preservation of its filming location, Eckley, Pennsylvania, from demolition. The town now stands as a museum.
• Creator Killer: Martin Ritt blamed the film's massive critical and commercial failure for permanently damaging his career.
• Executive Meddling: According to cinematographer James Wong Howe, Martin Ritt wanted to shoot this film in black-and-white, but was not allowed to do so by Paramount. By 1970, studios were concerned that black-and-white films would not make as much money when broadcast on television, possibly for fear that they would be considered "old" films.
• Fake Irish: Scotsman Sean Connery as "Black Jack" Kehoe.
• Star-Derailing Role: Both stars' careers took a blow from the film's financial failure. It solidified Sean Connery's reputation for being box-office poison outside of James Bond, and torpedoed Richard Harris's chance at superstar status.

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