Sansón

Brad Harris repeatedly demonstrates his impossible strength throughout this peplum piece along with he-man co-star Sergio Ciani. Lots of wrasslin' and clobberin' for those who enjoy musclemen movies. There's nothing cerebral going on here, but there's fun to be had. Plus, court intrigue, a rebellion, pageantry, an evil queen, and Serge Gainsbourg as the villain. The comedy spots are sometimes awkward and puerile but not entirely unwelcome. The score from time to time gets a bit goofy but is adequately bold and triumphant when needed. There are several brief moments of focus problems, but this is otherwise richly colorful widescreen entertainment and the image quality streaming is good. Lower your expectations and disregard historical accuracy, and let the youngster in you enjoy this early 60's Hercules spinoff.

I first saw this movie on a B&W TV back in the 1960s and was very impressed by it then and even more so now that there are full color versions available . Brad Harris told me that he always enjoyed making these ancient epics during the Olympics that were held in Rome at the time. SAMSON was made at the same time as FURY OF HERCULES and use all the same sets and most of the same actors. Alan Steel was in both after he lost his "stand-in" job on GIANT OF MARATHON. Alan Steel later went on to star in many successful blockbusters of his own. HERCULES AGAINST THE MOONMEN was his biggest. The story in SAMSON. Is a simple one with the main purpose of this film being to show "incredible feats of strength" that were in demand at the time. Brad Harris and Alan Steel make a great dueling pair of muscle heroes.

The treacherous court counselor Warkalla takes possession of the throne of Sulan and of the goods of Queen Mila, replacing her with the beautiful but insignificant Romilda. Samson joins Mila and the rebels to regain the kingdom of Sulan and to hunt Romilda and Warkalla.

There's two muscle heroes in the form of Brad Harris and Alan Steel, though Harris is more the lead, as after all he's the title character, but his Samson isn't of the biblical variety. Nor is the story. There's no Delilah but there's one evil imposter Queen- the real Queen is in prison - played by Marla Berni. Aiding her in wickedness is Serge Gainsborg who keeps this standard yet fun peplum simmering. It's a better than average peplum with a plot firing challenges for our heroes and enough action.

Even by the very low standards of these superpowered musclemen live action cartoons, this one is terrible. No redeeming values (the "trial by fire" is the one interesting concept, but like everything else badly executed), but the two flirting...., er, excuse me, I meant fighting scenes between the uber-muscular Brad Harris and Alan Steel are amusing for their (barely hidden) subtext. 0.5 out of 4 stars.

This is a really badly dubbed movie as far as the english dialogue is concerned. I don't know how it is in Italian but the English version uses the word COWARD in what seems like every other sentence. I have heard better dialogue in a Speed Racer Cartoon. Its not to bad if you like to see muscle men running around in technicolor miniskirts. Its also good for a few unintentional laughs for bad movie watchers such as myself. I rated this movie a 2 only because believe it or not I've seen worse. COWARDS!!! Sincerely bagtown 2002