Shake Hands with the Devil (1959 film)

Shake Hands with the Devil
Directed by	Michael Anderson
Produced by	Michael Anderson
Written by	Rearden Conner (novel) Marian Spitzer
Starring	James Cagney Don Murray Dana Wynter Glynis Johns
Narrated by	Michael Rennie
Music by	William Alwyn
Cinematography	Erwin Hillier
Edited by	Gordon Pilkington
Production company	Pennebaker Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	1959 (1959)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	Ireland United States
Language	English

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 and Don Murray. Also featured are Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Sybil Thorndike and Michael Redgrave.

Irish-American Kerry O'Shea (Don Murray) is studying at the College of Surgeons in 1921 Dublin, Ireland, during a guerrilla war – the Irish War of Independence. Apolitical and sick of killing after fighting in World War I, he is drawn into the struggle between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British Black and Tans.

He and his friend and fellow medical student, Paddy Nolan (Ray McAnally), are caught in the middle of an IRA ambush, and Nolan is shot by the British. Nolan tells O'Shea to fetch Sean Lenihan (James Cagney), one of their professors. Lenihan, it turns out, is also a high-ranking IRA leader known as "the Commandant". Lenihan removes the bullet, but Nolan dies anyway.

Since O'Shea left his textbook (with his name inscribed) at the scene of the ambush, he is now a wanted man. Lenihan takes him to meet his superior, "the General" (Michael Redgrave), an old comrade-in-arms of O'Shea's father. When O'Shea refuses his invitation to join the IRA, the General arranges for a boat passage out of Ireland. Lenihan takes him to a hideout by the sea, the base of an IRA unit commanded by Chris Noonan (Cyril Cusack). Lenihan is furious to find local barmaid Kitty Brady (Glynis Johns) consorting with the men there.