In the late 1950s, managing director Emmet Dalton and entrepreneur Louis Elliman travelled to the US to promote the studios and to acquire foreign investment. The studios accordingly landed its first major foreign booking with 1959's "Shake Hands with the Devil", starring Oscar winner James Cagney and Dana Wynter. A year later progress was consolidated when Robert Mitchum appeared in Tay Garnett's ""A Terrible Beauty"". In 1961, Ardmore Studios hosted the controversial ""The Mark"", directed by Guy Green, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and earned its star, Stuart Whitman, an Oscar nomination. Other films produced at this time include Don Chaffey's "The Webster Boys" and "Johnny Nobody" with Cyril Cusack. Hammer Films also utilised the studios as a base for their production, "The Viking Queen".