Shake Hands with the Devil is a 1959 film directed by Michael Anderson. The picture was filmed in Dublin, and at Ardmore Studios in Bray, Ireland.
The film is set in 1921 Dublin, where the Irish Republican Army battles the Black and Tans, ex-British soldiers sent to suppress the rebels. It stars James Cagney as Sean Lenihan and Don Murray as Kerry O'Shea. Also featured are Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Sybil Thorndike, Michael Redgrave, and Richard Harris.
Plot
Irish-American Kerry O'Shea (Don Murray) is studying medicine at the College of Surgeons in 1921 Dublin, Ireland. Apolitical and sick of killing after fighting in World War I, he is drawn into the struggle between the Irish Republican Army and the British Black and Tans after his friend and fellow medical student Paddy Nolan (Ray McAnally) is shot and killed. Complications ensue when Kerry falls for a beautiful English hostage, and the British offer a peace treaty that is not enough to satisfy Sean Lenihan, the leader of the rebel organization, and Kerry's former professor.
Cast
- James Cagney as Sean Lenihan
- Don Murray as Kerry O'Shea
- Dana Wynter as Jennifer Curtis
- Glynis Johns as Kitty Brady
- Michael Redgrave as The General
- Sybil Thorndike as Lady Fitzhugh
- Cyril Cusack as Chris Noonan
- Harry Brogan as Tom Cassidy
- Robert Brown as First Sergeant (Black & Tans)
- Lewis Casson as Judge
- Christopher Casson as Brigadier
- John Cairney as Mike O'Callaghan
- Harry H. Corbett as Clancy (as Harry Corbett)
- Allan Cuthbertson as Captain
- Donal Donnelly as Willie Lafferty
- Richard Harris as Terence O'Brien
- William Hartnell as Sergeant Jenkins
- John Le Mesurier as British General
- Niall MacGinnis as Michael O'Leary
- Patrick McAlinney as Donovan, bartender
- Ray McAnally as Paddy Nolan
- Clive Morton as Sir Arnold Fielding
- Noel Purcell as Liam O'Sullivan
- Peter Reynolds as Captain (Black & Tans)
- Christopher Rhodes as Colonel Smithson