‘Samson and Delilah’ or — Shit but Awesome?
The story goes (and it could be apocryphal but let’s indulge in it anyway) that before the release of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968) it was the re-runs of Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical epics that young people would go to the cinema to watch whilst under the influence of vast quantities of high-quality weed. And you can understand why because DeMille’s films weren’t just opulent, lavish and grand but certifiably fucking demented.
‘Samson and Delilah’ (1949) is no different with sets, costumes and a production design so deranged it makes the mind boggle as how such a rabidly conservative, religious Republican as DeMille could’ve created something that looks like the fever-dream of a sexually depraved opium addict.
We all know the story — Samson beats up a lion which sets Delilah’s nether regions on fire but when she realises she can’t have him she drugs him, gives him a haircut where upon wakening and discovering he’s now bald he promptly trashes the place. It might be based on biblical sources and declare itself a messenger of virtuous Christian values but it’s actually a nutzoid, stark-raving mad piece of sleazy nymphoid lunacy… and that’s what makes it a masterpiece.
Victor Mature is perfect as Samson, looking like a Las Vegas lounge singer with the body of a superhero (he’s like Dean Martin drawn by Max Fleischer). Hedy Lamarr is even better as the seductive and devious Delilah although a purring George Sanders pretty much steal the show as the hilarious Saran of Gaza (his head-gear alone is hysterical to the point of reducing the audience to constant tears).
The biblical and religious stuff is certainly present but it’s seriously side-lined in favour of haircuts and fucking (a possible alternative title for the movie?) although when Delilah does finally shear Samson’s locks we can tell there’s a certain shocking line even DeMille won’t cross as we don’t see Samson as completely hairless (the sight of a fully bald man on screen would’ve been something America wouldn’t have been able to psychologically handle at the time) but, instead, he’s simply got shorter hair — i.e. she’s given him a bit of a trim.
Visually the film looks… berserk? If you dubbed this movie into Italian and told people it was a long lost Mario Bava peplum fantasy they’d believe you as it’s a relentless riot of golds, purples, lapis blues and various other colours I’m pretty certain technically don’t exist (how much did Fellini or Ken Russell take from here?).
The costumes are utterly mesmerising with Angelia Lansbury getting to wear some particularly spectacular numbers, although the film’s most inspired piece of visual design is when Delilah and Samson are in each other’s arms and we notice there’s a multi-coloured flower adorning his muscular wrist (sweetness and strength?). And all of this is captured by some Technicolor cinematography so gob-smackingly astonishing it makes you want to burst out weeping that they don’t make films like this anymore (what have we lost?!).
‘Samson and Delilah’ is tasteless, trashy, gaudy, ridiculous, unintentionally hilarious, stupid, unhinged and profoundly idiotic, but dear god it’s entertaining as hell. You can keep your ‘Ben Hur’s (1959), your ‘Cleopatra’s (1963) or your ‘King of Kings’ (1961) because as far as biblical epics go this one really brings the house down.
