Best movie of this year hands down!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The most interesting theme of this very outstanding and typical dark Irish drama is the multitude of double personalities. James Cagney is number one, of course, a respectable surgeon and professor at the university on one hand and leading an underground war with many murders on the orther. Don Murray enters a pacifist, having learned the hard way in the first world war the dreadful self-destructive futility of being a soldier, refusing to kill any more, but he is transformed to yet another fanatic and killer - and very logically so. When the crisis comes he is faced by the fact that he has only one choice - and accepts it and walks the whole line. And then there is Glynis Johns, wonderful as always, as a bar maid luring any man to get into her, being wholly on the freedom fighter side, but then, when the crisis comes, melting and surrendering to her very human and female weakness. Dana Wynter, on the other hand, stays cool, sees through it all and remains rigorous, - and that's why she is of no psychological interest.All the other actors are superb as well, Cyril Cusack as the poet-soldier, Richard Harris in a very early performance spoiling it all by rowdy mistakes, Michael Redgrave as head of the Irish rebel army but callously political, all enjoying a terrific and memorable dialogue, that is sustained in excellence throughout. They could have brought Michael Collins in it as well, but you can't have everything. Wlliam Alwyn's impressing music does the rest, with a truly inspired cinematography at that - many sceneries recall similar unforgettable moments in "Odd Man Out", another timeless variation on the same complex problem of the necessity of fidelity to the cause at any cost - but at what price? In the end its inhuman absurdity always has outgrown all reasonable acceptability.

Shake Hands with the Devil is directed by Michael Anderson and adapted to screenplay by Marian Spitzer from the novel written by Rearden Conner. It stars James Cagney, Don Murray, Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Michael Redgrave and Sybil Thorndike. Music is by William Alywyn and cinematography by Erwin Hillier.It's 1920s Dublin, Ireland, and the Irish Republican Army are at war with the British Black & Tans. Into the conflict comes Irish American Kerry O'Shea (Murray), who in spite of being apolitical is drawn into darker waters as the violence rages. Complications arise when a hostage situation unfurls, all while the strings are being pulled by the IRA's fearsome commandant, Sean Lenihan (Cagney), who wants Kerry under his wing.It has always been a tricky subject to film, the so called Irish Troubles, for too many film makers have either been ignorant of the facts in the name of good cinema, or so fuelled by other motives it's difficult to get on side with such one sided venom. Michael Anderson's film, whilst itself harbouring dubious political material, deserves plaudits for trying to come at the topic from both sides, embracing the complexities of the issues and never shying away from the violence that tore through parts of Ireland. Even if it ends up being a little confused as to its aims.Filmed on location predominantly in Dublin, there's almighty strength in the cinematography of Hillier (The Mark of Cain/Chase a Crooked Shadow). The night time shots of damp cobbled streets and gaslights are ethereal, while in daytime the lush landscapes are imposing yet still giving off a depressing hue. On the acting front it's Cagney who dominates, in one of his craziest and most crafty roles, he's a Vesuvius who darts between being the honourable cause man, to that of a psychotic who doesn't believe peace is a viable option. Strong support comes from Wynter and Johns.Political hot-pot with wrought emotion, and action scenes that impact as Cagney does his stuff, Shake Hands with the Devil leaves a mark. 7/10

This was a superb drama, magnificently acted with sensational black and white images throughout. This movie was shown on Channel 13 in NYC on Jan. 21, 2012. Somehow, I had never heard of it before. It's as good as any black-and-white movie drama I have ever seen. I put it in the same class of excellence for this category as The Third Man, High Noon, The Bicycle Thief, Zorba the Greek, and The Hustler. I'm so glad I saw it.This movie contains a lot of violent action, but it is shown in the context of a gripping plot involving complex, three-dimensional characters. The only exception is the minor character Col. Smithson. He is a thoroughly "bad guy" character whose brutality incites the Irish resistance fighters to seek vengeance with an elaborate assassination plot that sets the stage for the climax of the movie. It was all wonderfully satisfying. It would make a terrific opera.

James Cagney was a versatile American motion picture star who could shift from playing the most ruthless movie gangster 'The Public Enemy,' himself to the amiable and patriotic all American song and dance man George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy and to the macabre Lon Chaney in The Man of a 1000 Faces. Cagney took these three faces and melded them together into the creation of the character of Dr Sean Lenihan , the protagonist in the film adaptation of Riordan Conner's novel Shake Hands With The Devil.Riordan Conner the son of the last chief of the Royal Irish Constabulary knew the tactics and strategies of the revolutionaries but not the revolutionaries themselves. The Conner novel ambles between high Victorian Gothic intrigue and an over-drawn O'Henry morality tale. It is easy by the end to see how at the conclusion of the war Conner could not decide between Ireland or England. Cagney had no difficulty in such a decision. The character he made of Dr Lenihan has many strange twists. As a tough guy Cagney wasn't just a tough heavyweight; he had the invincible attitude of an all-star boxer, but like General Patton, a real life tough-guy, Cagney was taken to write poetry off-set. Out of the spotlight, Cagney was tacit and introspective as reflected in one of his poems: Why do you weep poor old man? It hurts me when you weep. I weep for the long lost wonderful years I once thought were mine to keep. Lenihan lives up to almost all aspects of the lovable bad-guy. A medical professor and surgeon by day, Lenihan converts under cover of darkness to a fierce, demoniacally inspired terrorist willing to do anything: murder, kidnapping and reprisal. "There are no hymns for the dead in a street war," Lenihan tells the American medical student who has come under the protection of the Rebels. And the real James Cagney knew not a little about war on the street. Born on July, 17, 1899 in modest circumstances in New York City's "gas house district," Cagney grew up in the upper East side, then a tough neighborhood. Cagney bragged that several of his playmates met their end at Sing-Sing Prison. Lest you think the Cagneys were as dirt poor as Hollywood propagandists portray, James attended both High School and briefly College. Cagney's brother became a medical doctor in a time in which about one-half of all Americans finished 6th Grade. His brother's influence is apparent in Shake Hands with The Devil. As Dr Lenihan, Cagney has all the mannerisms, arrogance and power of command of a doctor. Graduating from prestigious Stuyvesant High School, Cagney briefly studied art at Columbia University until a friend told him of a job in a vaudeville show. His break came with the part of "Little Red" in the staging of Maxwell Anderson's play "Outside Looking In." His film debut came when Cagney was cast in "Penny Arcade." When Warner Bros. bought the movie rights, Cagney was given the opportunity to star in the film version entitled 'Sinner's Paradise.' Tapped for "The Public Enemy" (1931), Cagney created the gangster film genre in his memorable role as vicious gunman totally without conscience but not without an element of the romantic. The Cagney imprint on the bad guy persona was a twist of the tough know-it-all braggart yet with an enchanting, if not, likable streak. Over 38 crime and action dramas or comedies followed. Some like the "The Public Enemy" and the morality tale "Angels With Dirty Faces" (1938) became genre classics. Shake Hands With The Devil breathed some life into Riordan Conner's tale of the hours of hiding interspersed by running gun battles by acknowledging the criminal facet of an irregular army fighting wholly outside conventions, neither giving nor expecting quarter. And Cagney's doctor sent into hiding is full of interesting surprises for a man of medicine who professes a love of peace. Dr Lenihan becomes so entranced by war that he must be sacrificed by his comrades to accomplish the prisoner exchange which will end the conflict. Yet if Cagney plays Dr Lenihan persuasively, he in his private life was all-American. In the 1940s, the Roosevelt democrat turned conservative, Cagney played in many US sponsored World War II propaganda films including "Yankee Doodle Dandy," based on the life of the American patriotic composer George M. Cohan. Like Cohan, Cagney would receive the US's highest civilian decoration---The Medal of Freedom---for his performance. In 1961 Cagney celebrated the height of Pax Americana in his bravura performance in "One, Two, Three," filmed on location in West Berlin. Do not think of Cagney as the ugly US-er. Cagney was unassuming. Richard Harris said of Cagney: "My first film (Shake Hands with the Devil) was with James Cagney. He arrived in Dublin with no bodyguards, secretaries or hair stylists. Just himself and his suitcases." Shake Hands With The Devil has been subject to many criticisms. Yet the diabolical portrait of a revolutionary James Cagney painted in Shake Hands stands as a haunting reminder than neither icons ensconced in stone nor words strung or sung whether in flowery resolutions or fancy declarations won a war for independence or any other armed conflict. Triumph in wars of independence brings with it tragedy but Shake Hands, notwithstanding its eloquence, does suffer from an important historical lapse. The martyr in the Irish Cause came from the pro-peace faction. A true patriot to the end, James Cagney died on the 70th anniversary of the Easter Rebellion in 1986, at his farm in Stanfordville, New York. His credits include innumerable films, a Best Actor Oscar, and Presidency of the Screen Actors Guild.