Customer Reviews

Samson and Delilah

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I LOVED this movie when I was a kid! And watching it at my now makes me love it even more. It helps to understand the little things more than I used to. :)

Yeah, I give the film "four stars" but my main reason for submitting is to set the record straight. Angela Lansbury did not play Samson's sister; she played "Semadar", sister to Delilah and betrothed of Samson. Her accidental death at the hands of one of the Philistine wedding party sends Samson in a murderous rage, setting the stage for Delilah's emergence as a treacherous romantic interest.

when the inimitable groucho marx was asked if he was going to attend the premiere of this movie, he responded that he refused to go to any movie where the hero had a bigger chest than the leading lady!

they dont make them like this anymore, which is a good thing!

I have always loved this movie since I was a kid. I want to purchase this movie but I prefer to wait until it is released on DVD. Why isn't this movie on DVD? There is no excuse. DVD has been out for a long time now. PLEASE PUT THIS MOVIE OUT ON DVD!!!

I like this movie. Wish it were on DVD. But why is it on 2 tapes? The movie only runs 128 minutes! Why did they divide it? I have movies that run MUCH longer on a single tape. Strange.

This is my favorite"Biblical"film. Great cast,great film production
a class act all the way. The "Ten commandments" &"Ben Hur" were all
great epics in their rights but I'm I alone when I say we're really
just waiting for the parting of the red sea and the chariot race.
This epic was told entertainingly (and mercifully) at 128 minutes
and has just as many glorious technicolor moments as the later award
winners. The so called drugged lion fight is actually no better or
worse than say "Hercules" or "Demetrius and the Gladiators" Keep in
mind this is 1949, The choregraphed Man vs.beast dance was still in
its infant stage. There's also the wedding feast fight and the bone
of an Ass massacre not to mention Climatic collapse of the mighty
Dagon temple. I hope that Paramount pays attention to detail when<BRthey finally put this technicolor wonder out on disc with original
trailer (I know Greatest show on earth is out this month so maybe
just maybe) "I'll need no eyes to find you"

All I have to say is when can I buy this on DVD?

One of DeMille's finest, from the sets and costumes to the superb acting and expressive music. Even the bit players are wonderful (look for George Reeves as the wounded Messenger relating the Battle of Ramath-Lehi to an incredulous George Sanders in terms that echoed the intro to Reeves' most famous role a few years later!). Lamarr is stunning, Mature is intense ("Look about you, Delilah..."), Sanders plays himself as the world-weary Seran of Gaza. Even ol'warhorse and longtime DeMille associate Henry Wilcoxson gets to shine as Prince Atur (he was originally supposed to play Samson, but was considered too old). There is no counting of the stars. Five is not nearly enough.

Our only quibble is with the way Dagon is portrayed in the temple scene. All the decor is Babylonian, and the idol looks like Moloch, the Canaanite sun god to whom certain kings of Judah used to sacrifice infants until commanded by God, through King Josiah, to desist (2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 32:35; 2 Kings 23:10). The Philistines were related to the Phoenicians, not the Babylonians. Their wealth came from the sea. Dagon was an ocean god like Neptune, and was portrayed as a fish or a merman. The only decor in the movie that properly reflects Dagon are Delilah's fish earrings in the wedding scene.

This should be released on DVD so that like Miriam says at the end, we can watch his story "for a thousand years"!

Just one simple statement - why is this NOT on DVD? What better film to glow up a DVD that this Technicolor marvel? PLEASE, PLEASE Paramount, release it!!...You've done us good with "Sunset Boulevard," "Roman Holiday," etc., now give us this fantastic treat!!...

De Mille, with God as his co-maker. In general, the plot follows the bible story, though Victor Mature's Samson, costumed in terry leotards and a montrous wig, bilious and flaccid, as though he couldn't pull down the papier-mache temple. He does it, though, and he (his double) wrestles a moth-eaten lion and crowns several extras with the jaw of an ass. Hedy Lamarr was in general considered too old for the role of Delilah (Lamarr was thirty six at the time) but when De Mille couldn't get pitiful Gail Russell for Delilah (she always arrived on set drunk) it had to be Lamarr, who's Delilah, with her slurry German-English would be more at home in a Yorkville Bar than in a high-tone Philistine residence. All in all, the film does not enhance the glory of De Mille or his Associate; its splendors are purely in the camp division. Among the supporting cast are George Sanders, as the head man of the Philistines, Henry Wilcoxon, looking as nobly baffled as ever, and Angela Lansburry in a brief role as Delilah's sister, for whom Mature yearns, to the inexplicable despair of Lamarr. The sets are wonderously cheasy. Paramount. Color.