Samson and Delilah (1949)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Absolutely amazing

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"Samson and Delilah" is sort of a dry run for Cecil B. De Mille's ultimate grand epic, "The Ten Commandments". This is a smaller-scale production; there are some scenes shot outdoors, but most of it is just talk inside rather obvious studio sets. Nonetheless, the few scenes where Samson demonstrates his superhuman strength are spectacular, especially the climactic collapse of the temple (if you can set aside the small fact that he is committing mass murder, of course - after all, it's in the Bible!). Victor Mature is rather miscast as Samson, but Hedy Lamarr is perfect as the slightly sadomasochistic Delilah ("if you crush the life out of me with your bare arms, I will kiss them with my dying breath!"). **1/2 out of 4.

I have read several reviews here about this C.B. DeMille picture and I concur with many of the assertions. George Saunders was excellent in his portrayal. Interesting that he tended to slump a bit; I noticed this because his physical presence seemed to be potentially equal to Victor Mature's. I enjoyed Victor Mature in this role although his character really did not seem to be that interested in the beauty of Delilah. I think the camera and the audience did notice Hedy Lamar. The rhythm and cadence of her speech seemed to have been dictated noticeably by her Austrian origins. I always found her to be part of each scene; I believed her character. I think if Hedy had been 10 years younger and brought to Hollywood in the silent era she would have been a major star. She knew how to move, and how to hold a position. Her image was sexual. Just watch her in each scene. She is very beautiful. And she is direct. Angela Lansbury looks quite amazing as well. And Angela shows what a fine actress she is and will be for many years. But Hedy is where is the camera is happiest looking. As I watched this film I thought of how slow the development of man's potential was moving. At the start of the film we hear about the struggle of the Jewish people. And I thought of how life looked the same in 1500 B.C. (10 commandments era) and 1000 B.C.(the time of this film) and even 1000 A.D. (!) No new ideas had helped the ascent of man begin to find its ever-present potential. Without going into all the various ologies, itys and isms I would just say that Samson was his era's version of the Hulk. Stories to be told around campfires to encourage, entertain and inspire.

Classical and Biblical epics were popular during the cinema's silent era, but the genre declined in popularity during the thirties and early forties, partly due to technical problems with the early sound systems and partly because the financial climate during the Depression made the studios less willing to take risks. The genre never died out altogether, however, and during the late forties, fifties and early sixties it was to see a triumphant revival as Hollywood rediscovered spectacle as its main weapon in its battle with television. Cecil B. DeMille, probably the director most closely associated with the silent epic, had continued making examples such as "The Sign of the Cross" and "Cleopatra" even during the early days of sound, and was to play an important part in this revival, making two major epics based upon the Old Testament, "Samson and Delilah" and "The Ten Commandments".The appeal of the story of Samson and Delilah to DeMille is obvious. It is not only an adventure story, with its hero leading his people in a fight against oppression, but also one of the few great Biblical love stories, with a treacherous, seductive heroine. Although traditionalist Jews and Christians regard Samson as a literally real historical individual, the story has the feel of an archetypal myth.DeMille's film broadly follows the outline of the story given in the Book of Judges, but as this account is a rather brief one, it expands on it, introducing characters not found in the Bible. In this version, Samson is originally the fiancé of one of these characters, Delilah's sister Semadar, and his hatred for the Philistines stems partly from her death. (She is accidentally killed during a brawl at their wedding feast). Other non-Biblical characters are the Philistine ruler, the Saran, and his military commander, Ahtur. For some reason, Samson's people are always referred to as "Danites" rather than Hebrews or Israelites; although the Bible tells us that Samson was of the tribe of Dan, this was only one of twelve tribes which together made up the Israelite people.When first made in 1949, the film was wildly successful at the box-office, demonstrating that DeMille was right in his view that spectacle was what the American public wanted. Today, however, it looks very dated- in my view more so than "The Ten Commandments", which has stood the test of time far better. Part of the reason is the quality of the acting. The star of the later film is the great Charlton Heston, the actor who more than any other has come to symbolise the epic style, and DeMille could also call upon some fine supporting performances from the likes of Yul Brynner, Edward G Robinson, Cedric Hardwicke and Anne Baxter.Victor Mature certainly had the right looks for Samson; he was a man for whom the expression "beefcake" could have been invented, and his imposing physique and screen presence helped him win roles in later epics such as "The Robe", "Demetrius and the Gladiators" and "The Egyptian". Few, however, regarded him as being an actor in the same class as Heston- certainly not DeMille, who disliked him both as an actor and as an individual but was forced to take him by the studio, and not even Mature himself, who was famously self-deprecating about his acting skills. ("I'm not an actor — and I've got sixty-four films to prove it!"). DeMille's first choice for the part would have been either Burt Lancaster or Steve Reeves. Reeves was later to become a well-known epic actor, perhaps most famous for playing Hercules, another legendary strongman with many similarities to Samson, but Lancaster was never to star in an epic although his style of acting seemed well-suited to the genre.As one of the most beautiful actresses of the forties, Hedy Lamarr equally had the right looks for Delilah. She was not only a beauty but also highly intelligent, about as far from the "dumb blonde" (or "dumb brunette") image of the Hollywood starlet as one can get, but intellectuals do not always make the best actors, especially in roles which require strong emotions, as they often try to think themselves into a role as opposed to empathising with their character. (The Princeton-educated Brooke Shields has struck me as another example of this phenomenon). Hedy did not perhaps have the emotional range to play Delilah, who is not a simple villainess but an emotionally complex character who finds herself falling in love with Samson after she has betrayed him.The one good performance comes from George Sanders as the Saran, played not as a ranting tyrant but as a suave, worldly-wise and cynical ruler. (Sanders often played characters who were sophisticated but villainous, as in "All About Eve" or "Moonfleet", or for that matter the tiger Shere Khan in "The Jungle Book"). It came as a surprise to see Angela Lansbury, best-known for playing characters considerably older than her real age, as the glamorous young Semadar, although even here she is supposed to be Lamarr's older sister whereas in reality Lamarr was older than Lansbury by twelve years.Visually, the film is certainly spectacular, particularly the final scene in which Samson destroys the temple of the Philistine god Dagon. It is not, however, in the same class as "The Ten Commandments", a film which showed that the epic form could offer more than empty spectacle. "Samson and Delilah", however, may be spectacular, but there is little behind the spectacle. It is the sort of film which shows just why DeMille's detractors- and he had quite a few- frequently dismissed him as a mere vulgar showman. 5/10

It's hard not to mock this comic book version of the Bible's Book of Judges. However, if you can put up with the non-stop palaver, exterior sets and spotty acting, there is a big payoff at the end. That's when the heathens' temple of Dagon collapses in grand fashion thanks to Samson's eye-bulging strength and the Israelites' vengeful god. Catch all those cheering heathens getting suddenly creamed by ten-ton cardboard rocks. It's a Technicolor doozy and a real tribute to Paramount's special effects department.Nonetheless, the movie's other big action sequence— Samson swinging the jawbone—makes you wonder if the Philistines ever discovered the use of the spears they carry. Too bad that the staging there is about as credible as Wiley and the Roadrunner. Still, I could gaze into LaMarr's very non-Semitic blue eyes all day long. She and the hunky Mature definitely incarnate Hollywood's over-the-top imagination. But pity the clunky lines they have to recite. Stuff like "The Philistine dogs over our green fields do pass". Hollywood was always at its dialog worst when putting poetic excess like this into the mouths of unfortunate ancients and ethnics.Okay, I tried not to mock the movie, but it's just too hard to resist. On the other hand, the production remains a colorful eyeful, along with fancy costuming still fit for a royal court. Plus, there's the incomparable George Sanders at his snooty best. But these Biblical epics were too often commercial traps Hollywood just couldn't resist— that is, guaranteed big bucks in return for comic book treatments. Unfortunately, this is one of them.(In passing— contrary to the movie's version, this is how Samson actually got the cloaks to pay off his riddle wager: " And the spirit of the LORD came upon him {Samson}, and he went down to Ashkelon and slew thirty men of them {Philistines}, and took their spoil {cloaks}, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle." Judges 14:19. In short, De Mille and Co. turned the unacceptable mass murder in the Bible into the movie's rather comical crime of thievery, presumably to make the story more acceptable to ticket- buying audiences. How fitting.)