Johnny's main contacts are his lover Kathleen (Kathleen Ryan), also loved by the stern police inspector (Denis O'Dea) on Johnny's trail; the elderly, frail, art
fancier Father Tom (W. G. Fay); and an opportunistic little man
named Shell (F. J. McCormick), who lives in an attic with two fellow eccentrics — Robert Newton as the alcoholic painter Lukey, and Elwyn Brooke - Jones as the failed
medical student Tober.