Official Synopsis
Samson and Delilah tells the story of the Bible’s fabled strongman and the woman who seduces and betrays him. The film brings to life Samson’s incredible feats, including his battle with a lion, his single-handed assault on a thousand Philistine soldiers, his struggle with a giant and finally the spectacular climax in which he pulls down the pagan temple. But it is Delilah’s quest for revenge and ability to bring down even the mighty Samson that drive this thrilling and powerful story.
Typically, I’m not a huge fan of this very cheesy acting that comes along with the older films of this era. You get that same sort of delivery from most of the actors/actresses, which are more stage acting than movie. That’s understandable, though, as most of the actors/actresses were teethed on Vaudeville acts early on in the careers. Thankfully, Samson and Delilah is different.
The story itself is borrowed directly from the Bible story, which makes the production that much easier. The general storyline is laid out there, and the filmmakers didn’t stray too far away from it. What makes this movie great comes in two forms: Acting and Sets/Costumes. Led by Victor Mature, as Samson and the very beautiful Hedy Lamarr as Delilah, the pair’s acting and passion deliver this film beyond the biblical storyline presented.
They both push past the typical boring acting that was known for this time period and actually ‘live’ the roles of their characters pretty darn well. Hedy Lamarr is particularly impressive, as she actually grows from doting groupie of Samson to methodical witch that is out to get him. She isn’t stale at all, rather she is sadistic in her transformation and you actually end up hating her towards the end. She is head and shoulders above the rest. Before we move on, let me also give special props to Angela Lansbury as the super-hot Semadar. Her short stint in the film was well played, and she was easy on the eyes (respectfully).
The other impressive element to this film was the sets and costumes. There were plenty of films of this type during the 40s/50s, but I’m not sure I’ve watched one that was big budgeted or big named that sported this sort of sets that truly gave the story a true background to fall back on. For example, the last scene where Samson takes down the temple, the set was huge and gorgeous. Spanning probably a half of studio set, it was filled with columns, multiple levels and depth that truly made it feel like Samson was in the Philistines temple. To make this work even better, the wide shots were a mixture of model and set that didn’t skip a beat until the entire thing came a part (and you could see the people on the second level were models). Again, impressive.
As for the costumes, just simply gorgeous. And please understand, I usually don’t give props to costumes, with this cleaned up version of the film, you get some spectacular colors through the clothing. In particular, Lamarr’s outfits were gorgeous. Mostly consisting of blues, reds and gold, it really shines through and is the perfect example of how beautiful the costumes were in the film. Everyone looks this good, even the lowly Danites.
So, to recap, you get a solid story that doesn’t seem too long in the tooth. You get great acting in your main characters (and minor ones). You also get fantastic sets and costumes. What am I missing? Oh, the director isn’t too shabby, too (Cecil B. DeMille). If you look really closely at the film, you’ll probably see someone get injured… or die (that’s what DeMille was famous for — see the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles for details).
Truly a classic film and one that should be owned if you love the classics.
As for the quality of the DVD transfer, Paramount Pictures put this film through some major cleaning and came out with a really gorgeous 64 year old movie. You could swear it was done in the 60s and as I mentioned before, the clothing is a great tell-tale sign of how much work was done on the transfer. You don’t get many artifacts and the chroma keying in the film actually isn’t that bad (you will find worse from the 70s/80s — though they took more chances). So, in short, the DVD transfer actually improves upon the quality of the film. Though, I wish I could see this in a cleaned up HD version.
Finally, there are no special features. What do you expect from a 1949 film? Maybe a vintage premiere featurette would have been nice, but it’s not like they planned for it 60+ years ago.