68%User score 68 percent
The Young Lions
1958 · War · Drama
User Score
27 votes
A story of love and hate...and the sudden sound of guns!
In 1921 Dublin, the IRA battles the "Black & Tans," special British forces given to harsh measures. Irish-American medical student Kerry O'Shea hopes to stay aloof, but saving a wounded friend gets him outlawed, and inexorably drawn into the rebel organization by his former professor Sean Lenihan, who has "shaken hands with the devil" and begun to think of fighting as an end in itself. Complications arise when Kerry falls for a beautiful English hostage, and the British offer a peace treaty that is not enough to satisfy Lenihan.
Recommendations based on this film
John Chard
September 24, 2015
Loaded Weapon. 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 & Ta…
Read the full review on TMDB
CinemaSerf
May 4, 2024
I wonder whether an appreciation of this film depends on whether you are British or Irish? What it depicts, for me anyway, is the old adage that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" and James Cagney ("Lenihan") manages to encapsulate that succinctly. His character, a respected professor with republican leanings, recruits "O'Shea" (Don Murray) after one of his friends is shot by one of the infamous "…
Read the full review on TMDBReviews are written by the TMDB community, not by Shake Hands with the Devil's publisher.
