Samson has always been one of the most popular Bible stories because of it’s two great leading characters (the long haired rebel and a temptress) plus it’s great action sequences (wiping out platoon with a skull, bringing the temple down around them) and the metaphor of cutting here. All that is here in spades in this Cecil B de Mille version, plus some Hollywood embellishment.
Delilah (Hedy Lamarr) is in love with Samson but he prefers her sister (Angela Lansbury in a sexy outfit – it’s weird, like seeing your grandmother show off her midriff when she was young). So she engineers some Philistines to attend their wedding and the wife ends up dead, causing Samson to go on a rampage.
The fight with the lion has some very unconvincing moments (not just a fake lion but a too-obvious stand in for Victor Mature) – but some really good ones too, more than I remembered. The smiting of the Philistines with the jaw of an ass is very well done, as is the climactic collapse of the temple. Most of the running time, though, consists of dialogue – specifically long chats between Samson and Delilah. And some of said dialogue is very ripe and apt to induce giggles.
Mature is fine – I would have thought he was better than I did if I hadn’t read that Burt Lancaster was offered the role. Lancaster I think would have been terrific, all that intensity and bitterness. Mature wasn’t as good an actor. And his breasts are about the same size as Lamarrs! (Groucho Marx famously quipped that they were bigger.)
Lamarr seems a little old at first when playing the love struck sister but once she switches into temptress mode she’s great. The support cast feels very American – even Lansbury and Herbert Wilcoxon seem like Yanks, plus Russ Tamblyn does as young Saul. The exception is George Sanders who is an excellent villain, full of intelligence and ruthlessness – and he has a great death scene toasting the pillar that’s about to collapse on him.
No comments:
Post a Comment