Samson and Delilah

I appreciated the presence of Maria Schell and Victor Mature in the roles of parents of Samson.

I was grateful to Anthony Hamilton for the effort to propose a decent Samson. And Belinda Bauer is the reasonable Delilah. No doubts, different by what you know , from early ages , about title heroes but , not ignoring be only a TV movie, being familiar with 1980 s productions, not ignoring the fashion of Biblical adaptations, to be too critic about this version is unfair. Including for honest job of Jose Ferrer and Max van Sidow, for atmosphere and for physical obvious virtues of Mr. Hamilton.

So, a kind of easy adapation, decent at whole, no doubts, charming in its way.

A couple of Australians, Anthony Hamilton and Belinda Bauer, play the title roles in this television version of Samson And Delilah. But this film is mostly known for hauling Victor Mature out of retirement to play the small role of Samson's father. During the film Mature is kept very clothed with flowing robes of the desert and I suspect that 71 Mature did not have quite the physique that he had when he was Samson back in the day with Cecil B. DeMille.

In fact even with the way DeMille's spectacles are thought of today by more sophisticated audiences this Samson And Delilah comes off as a second company road show product. Whatever else DeMille did, he put style and sex into his film even with the Victorian era dialog that also went into them. Both the slaying of the Philistines with the ass's jawbone and the climatic pulling down of Dagon's temple were done so much better by Cecil. And no other film ever had the gaudy color cinematography than the DeMille Samson And Delilah.

I also suppose this film really does belong on the big screen because of its subject matter. That's where I saw the DeMille version when Paramount re-released it when I was a lad.

Belinda Bauer is a beautiful Delilah, but there was only one Hedy Lamarr.

Veterans of some biblical films Max Von Sydow and Jose Ferrer contribute what they can, but it isn't enough.

However after finally getting to see this it was nice to see Victor Mature in both his farewell performance and in the film in which he made the legendary quote that the reason he did the film was that "for the money they were paying me, I'd have put on a dress and played Samson's mother". Fortunately for Vic the producers got another big screen veteran Maria Schell to be Samson's mother.

As for Mature he walks through the scenes like a man in a hurry to get back to his retirement and a ranch he owned in those years. The paycheck must have cleared. Mature as he grew older took himself less and less seriously, an interesting phenomenon in a town loaded with king size egos.

This Samson And Delilah is all right, but you'll never see anything like what Cecil B. DeMille did with that story.

Unknown and too long Samson retelling with ordinary main cast as Anthony Hamilton as the hunk Samson and Belinda Bauer as seductive Delilah, and pretty good performance by a great secondary cast as Max Von Sidow ,Clive Revill, Maria Schell. The well known story semibased on Cecil B De Mille 1950 film deals with Samson, a Israeli judge who with his huge force and incredible power faces off the Philistine military . Then he falls for the vindictive and treacherous Delilah who robbed him of his strength by shearing his curls. Along the way Samson is causing wreak havoc with Philistine Army and their nasty General, Max Von Sidow. As Samson sacrificing everything to avenge his people, his love and his God. As Samson armed only with the jawbone of an ass defeats a Philistine army of hardened warriors !. The cruelty of the Philistines exarted on Samson when they blind him with a white hot sword!. And the most awesome moment in history when Samson pulls down the huge pagan temple, crushing his enemies under tons of stone, as written in the Book we live by!

A hockey Bible epic concerning the famous hero, it displays thrills, combats, romance and spectacular scenes. This is an overlong but inoffensive adaptation, however, being acceptable and passable. The film isn't delivered in signature DeMille style, but it is more deliberated and slowly paced. This Samson was at time, a Israelita shepherd and also the strongest man alive, as he is romanced with the gorgeous but treacherous Delilah who discovers the secret of his strength. Original Samson, Victor Mature, plays Samson's father and Maria Schell his mother, along with other notorious secondaries as Max Von Sydow, Daniel Stern, Jose Ferrer, Clive Revill, Stephen Macht. It contains a sensitive and spectacular musical score by the prestigious Maurice Jarre. As well as atmospheric and evocative cinematography by Gerry Fisher. The motion picture was professionally directed by Lee Philips.

Other renditions about this Biblic story are as follows :Samson and Dalilah 1949 By Cecil B DeMille with Victor Mature, Hedy Lamarr, Angela Lansbury, George Sanders. Samson and Delilah 1996 by Nicholas Roeg with Eric Thal, Elizabeth Hurley, Dennis Hooper, Michael Gambon. Samson 2018 by Bruce McDonald with Taylor Jones, Caitlin Leahy, Billy Zane, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner.

This movie heralded the "introduction" of bona fide Australian adonis Antony Hamilton, though he had done television and a low budget cult film, "Nocturna" previously. Hamilton in various stages of undress is the only reason to watch this film -- which is a good enough one -- though in the version I saw some of the body parts were vaselined out. The dialogue is 20th century American dreck; Victor Mature, the movie star Samson, gives an embarrassing performance eating a chicken leg; and Belinda Bauer is no Hedy Lamarr and let's face it, Hedy Lamarr was not the most exciting actress to hit the screen, even if she was one of the most beautiful. This movie concentrates on bodies making out in the pool, a near-naked Samson getting tossed into the lake by his buddies, love-making between nearly naked Samson and nearly naked Delilah and good looks at Samson's muscles throughout. As far as I'm concerned, this is a no miss, having nothing whatsoever to do with the story. It is depressing, however, to realize that Hamilton died at such a young age and, all kidding aside, that is a very sad loss.

As a horror fan, I have been known to appreciate the occasional biblical epic, many a yarn from 'the good book' delivering as much sex, violence and general chaos as your average scary movie. This made-for-TV version of the oft-told tale Samson and Delilah has been watered down a bit for the medium, but there is still plenty to enjoy here, even if some of it is for the unintentional laughs.

Dancer turned actor Antony Hamilton may have batted for the other side in real life, but he is convincingly macho here as the Hebrew beefcake with the flowing locks who stupidly puts his trust in promiscuous Philistine Delilah (sultry brunette Belinda Bauer). The supporting cast is also pretty damn good, with Max von Sydow as nasty Philistine governor Sidka, a young(ish) Daniel Stern as Samson's best bud Micah, and Cecil B. DeMille's Samson, Victor Mature, in a small role as the hero's father.

As usual with this type of film, treachery and deceit abounds, the innocent tend to wind up dead, there are bloody battles galore, and a unquestionable faith in God helps in defeating the bad guys. Considering its humble origins (this is no massive Hollywood extravaganza by any means) the production values aren't too shabby, with decent sets and costumery; some cheap props, however, lead to some of that aforementioned hilarity, funniest bits being Samson's fight with a lion-skin rug and his smiting of an army with the rubber jaw-bone of an ass.