'SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL'......WHEN IRISH EYES AREN'T SMILING

Shake Hands With The Devil (1959)   Yes, it did occur to us that we should have posted about this film yesterday..... St. Patrick's Day.........which would have been the perfect moment to discuss this white-hot melodrama about the Irish 'Troubles' in the 1920's......

           What can we say......tough shamrocks. In this dystopian age of self-quarantining, social distancing and snarling "my precious!" to a roll of toilet paper......we lost all track of time.......

             Besides, we all might as well start embracing these old movies.........as it appears there won't be any new ones till sometime next year.......

             This one's a corker of an action-drama, ripped from the 1920's headlines and galvanized by that legendary icon James Cagney......fully tearing into his role as an I.R.A. fanatic consumed with bloodlust.

             You get the full Cagney-fication here, with the star playing a renowned Irish surgeon who in reality takes more lives than he saves......as he plans and carries out guerrilla assaults on Britain's dreaded 'Black An Tan' special forces who hunt down Irish rebels. Cagney's a true force of nature here, a one man whirlwind of rage and revenge.

              One his medical school students, a visiting American (Don Murray) gets sucked into the mayhem, arrested and beaten senseless by a brutal Black And Tan colonel.......which enrages the already volcanic Cagney who breaks Murray out of prison and vows overwhelming payback.

               While Murray recuperates,  an elderly noblewoman (Dame Sybil Thorndyke) gets seized and convicted by the Brits for attempting to help an IRA fighter escape.  Cagney then hopes to free the frail Thorndyke (who's on a hunger strike) with a prisoner swap..... by in turn kidnapping a revered young widowed aristocrat (the ever lovely Dana Wynter) 

               Naturally, the conflicted Murray, who's starting to question Cagney's mad fanaticism and devotion to violence, falls hard for Wynter.  But Wynter faces a bullet from Cagney if the Brits won't spring the dying old lady in exchange for her.......just as Cagney and his forces launch a bloody dockside firefight to assassinate the Black And Tan commander........

               You can depend on Cagney and director Michael Anderson to keep all these incendiary plotlines at a full boil........there isn't a minute of this film that isn't riveting. And we loved spotting all the instantly familiar faces in the large supporting cast of British and Irish actors........including Glynis Johns as a barmaid-hooker who shares an unspoken toxic history with Cagney and a young Richard Harris as the most reckless of the IRA bunch.

              So don't wait for next year's St. Patrick's Day to check this out.......BQ says if you're seeking a tough little classic film,  you can shake hands with "Shake Hands With The Devil" any day of the year......4 stars (****)