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| Samson and Delilah: a good effort at biblical sex and violence | Samson and Delilah: a good effort at biblical sex and violence |
| (4 months later) | |
| Samson and Delilah (1949) Director: Cecil B DeMille Entertainment grade: B History grade: B | Samson and Delilah (1949) Director: Cecil B DeMille Entertainment grade: B History grade: B |
| The story of Samson is recorded in the Bible's book of Judges, thought to have been written in about the 7th or 6th century BC. | The story of Samson is recorded in the Bible's book of Judges, thought to have been written in about the 7th or 6th century BC. |
| Politics | Politics |
| The tribe of Dan are oppressed by the cruel Philistines, which everyone in the film doggedly pronounces "Fliss-teens". "Tyranny rose!" exclaims the voiceover, "But deep in man's heart still burned the unquenchable will for freedom." There's a political message here for the 20th century. The film is based on a treatment by Harold Lamb and leading Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky, who died in 1940, nine years before the film's release. The modern state of Israel was established in 1948. | The tribe of Dan are oppressed by the cruel Philistines, which everyone in the film doggedly pronounces "Fliss-teens". "Tyranny rose!" exclaims the voiceover, "But deep in man's heart still burned the unquenchable will for freedom." There's a political message here for the 20th century. The film is based on a treatment by Harold Lamb and leading Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky, who died in 1940, nine years before the film's release. The modern state of Israel was established in 1948. |
| People | People |
| Samson (Victor Mature), hero of the Danites, dumps big-eyed girl-next-door Miriam (Olive Deering) for hot Philistine blonde Semadar (Angela Lansbury). Meanwhile, Semadar's sister Delilah burns with lust for him. He'd be an idiot to say no to her, for Delilah is played by the gorgeous mathematician Hedy Lamarr – sometimes credited as the inventor of Wi-Fi. Historians and scientists might be happier with the statement that she was one of the inventors of frequency hopping, which was subsequently used in military and civilian communications technology. None of this is much use to her in 10th-century-BC Gaza, where communications technology pretty much starts and ends with saying stuff loudly. Furthermore, Samson is an idiot. He ignores her and blunders after her blonde sister. | Samson (Victor Mature), hero of the Danites, dumps big-eyed girl-next-door Miriam (Olive Deering) for hot Philistine blonde Semadar (Angela Lansbury). Meanwhile, Semadar's sister Delilah burns with lust for him. He'd be an idiot to say no to her, for Delilah is played by the gorgeous mathematician Hedy Lamarr – sometimes credited as the inventor of Wi-Fi. Historians and scientists might be happier with the statement that she was one of the inventors of frequency hopping, which was subsequently used in military and civilian communications technology. None of this is much use to her in 10th-century-BC Gaza, where communications technology pretty much starts and ends with saying stuff loudly. Furthermore, Samson is an idiot. He ignores her and blunders after her blonde sister. |
| Romance | Romance |
| Delilah drags Samson out to the desert, where they are waylaid by a lion. Bravely, Samson leaps at it. Or, rather, his stunt double does. Director Cecil B DeMille was furious with Victor Mature for refusing to wrestle the real lion he procured for the scene, though the leading man gamely rolled around with a stuffed version in the close-ups. "You killed him with your hands!" gasps Delilah. "Oh, Samson!" She leaps upon him, considerably more rapacious than either the real or the fake lion. No dice: he still marries the blonde. | Delilah drags Samson out to the desert, where they are waylaid by a lion. Bravely, Samson leaps at it. Or, rather, his stunt double does. Director Cecil B DeMille was furious with Victor Mature for refusing to wrestle the real lion he procured for the scene, though the leading man gamely rolled around with a stuffed version in the close-ups. "You killed him with your hands!" gasps Delilah. "Oh, Samson!" She leaps upon him, considerably more rapacious than either the real or the fake lion. No dice: he still marries the blonde. |
| Arson | Arson |
| The marriage doesn't work out. Aggrieved, Samson sets fire to the fields of the Philistines, though it seems even the great DeMille couldn't figure out a way to film this novel method of arson as described in the book of Judges: "Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines". Perhaps cutting that from the film was for the best: it could only have been upsetting for the foxes. | The marriage doesn't work out. Aggrieved, Samson sets fire to the fields of the Philistines, though it seems even the great DeMille couldn't figure out a way to film this novel method of arson as described in the book of Judges: "Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines". Perhaps cutting that from the film was for the best: it could only have been upsetting for the foxes. |
| Costume | Costume |
| Delilah seduces Samson, so as to betray him to the Philistines. The Philistines take him to be humiliated at the temple of their god, Dagon. Delilah turns up in a fabulous cloak of peacock feathers. Just as no foxes were inconvenienced in the making of this film, nor were any peacocks. DeMille had pet ones, and is said to have collected their shed plumes from the grounds of his ranch to make Lamarr's costume. | Delilah seduces Samson, so as to betray him to the Philistines. The Philistines take him to be humiliated at the temple of their god, Dagon. Delilah turns up in a fabulous cloak of peacock feathers. Just as no foxes were inconvenienced in the making of this film, nor were any peacocks. DeMille had pet ones, and is said to have collected their shed plumes from the grounds of his ranch to make Lamarr's costume. |
| Love | Love |
| Samson still loves Delilah, even though it is her fault that he has now been imprisoned, blinded, subjected to hard labour, and attacked by miniature gladiators (no, that bit isn't in the Bible, but this is a long film and somebody got creative). "Wherever you go, my love is with you," he tells her. Well, she did invent Wi-Fi. His strength returns and he destroys the temple. It's a striking sequence, though some of the blocks of falling stone bounce – which doesn't make them look a lot more convincing than the stuffed lion. | Samson still loves Delilah, even though it is her fault that he has now been imprisoned, blinded, subjected to hard labour, and attacked by miniature gladiators (no, that bit isn't in the Bible, but this is a long film and somebody got creative). "Wherever you go, my love is with you," he tells her. Well, she did invent Wi-Fi. His strength returns and he destroys the temple. It's a striking sequence, though some of the blocks of falling stone bounce – which doesn't make them look a lot more convincing than the stuffed lion. |
| Verdict | Verdict |
| "I am sometimes accused of gingering up the Bible with large and lavish infusions of sex and violence," wrote DeMille in his autobiography. "I can only wonder if my accusers have ever read certain parts of the Bible." Hollywood may taketh away flaming foxes with one hand, but it giveth miniature gladiators with the other. | "I am sometimes accused of gingering up the Bible with large and lavish infusions of sex and violence," wrote DeMille in his autobiography. "I can only wonder if my accusers have ever read certain parts of the Bible." Hollywood may taketh away flaming foxes with one hand, but it giveth miniature gladiators with the other. |
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