Producer-director Cecil B. DeMille’s epic tells the spectacularly dramatized Book of Judges story of a Hebrew strongman who learns the hard way that his strength flows not from himself, but from God.
For decades the Philistines keep the Hebrews in bitter bondage. Against that backdrop struts Samson (Victor Mature), a lusty, fun-loving, cocksure Hebrew herdsman. Breaking taboo, he falls for a Philistine: golden-haired warrior-lady Semadar (Angela Lansbury). Samson’s inexplicable slaying of a lion with his bare hands impresses Philistine leader Lord Saran (George Sanders) enough for him to approve Samson’s marriage to Semadar. But it’s her dark-haired sister Delilah (Hedy Lamarr) who covets Samson.
Hazelelponit (Fay Holden) and her son Samson (Victor Mature), in “Samson and Delilah.” (Paramount Pictures)
Delilah stirs up the Philistines and Samson against each other, effectively stopping the marriage. Blinded by rage, and pride over his superhuman strength, Samson wreaks havoc on the Philistines; one of their spears kills Semadar. Distraught, Samson spurns a clinging Delilah, then disappears into the wilderness. To flush him out of hiding, Lord Saran enforces taxes on the Hebrews. For their sake, Samson turns himself in, only to go on and batter an entire Philistine battalion with nothing but a donkey’s jawbone as a weapon.
Enraged, Lord Saran allows Delilah, now his queen, to seduce, sedate, pacify,and swindle Samson into sharing, then surrendering, the secret source of his strength: his luxurious locks of hair. Immediately, the Philistines bind, blind, and bully the newly powerless Samson, working him as a slave at their grain-millstone.
The lovers repent—Samson for his lustful arrogance, Delilah for her deadly cunning. Desperate to atone, Delilah forsakes Philistine idols and prays to Samson’s God for deliverance. Samson, on his knees, also prays to God. When all seems lost, this unseen God answers them, just not in the way they intend.
DeMille once wrote that he was inspired more by the colorful Vladimir Jabotinsky novel about Samson than by relatively tepid biblical narratives. DeMille’s film won two Oscars, one for art direction and one for costume design.
Director Cecil B. DeMille (holding glasses) on the set of “Samson and Delilah.” (Paramount Pictures)
His Delilah and Saran are about the only Philistine characters who aren’t cartoonish. His Hebrews are more fleshed out; Samson, especially in the film’s second half, is closer to a foretelling of a Christlike figure than other onscreen characterizations.
The crew shot in Morocco, Algeria, and across North Africa to give some scenes an authentic touch. Lamarr’s sensual Delilah in this 1949 film is reminiscent of Vivien Leigh’s scorned and scheming Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind” (1939). And powerfully built Mature is convincing as a brute who misreads God’s idea of strength; he plays Samson’s father in the 1984 TV production of the same name.
Delilah (Hedy Lamarr) seduces Samson (Victor Mature), in “Samson and Delilah.” (Paramount Pictures)
Spiritual Strength, Blessed Beauty
The story is faithful to the spirit, if not the letter, of the biblical account; it is Samson’s spiritual strength that matters more here. His onscreen character arc nods to both the first Adam, who sinned against God, and the second Adam, Christ, who atoned for that sin.
Naturally, DeMille’s introductory image of Samson is not of a brawler battling a beast, but of a shepherd cradling a lamb. Born to a barren woman, Samson will begin to deliver Israel. But the mocking and scourging he endures anticipates another deliverer to be born of a virgin, who is foretold to fulfill this deliverance.
DeMille frames the visible Hebrew struggle for political freedom also as Samson’s and Delilah’s less visible struggle for spiritual freedom from themselves. Chastened, Samson sees loss to God as gain, “You take away my sight that I may see more clearly.” True strength comes from overcoming sin: the only real death. One of Samson’s Hebrew betrayers says, it’s better for one man to die than for a whole nation to perish and, as if in recompense, adds, “His name will be written in the Book of Judges.” It’s his spiritual strength that ultimately makes Samson immortal.
Samson (Victor Mature) brings down the temple, in “Samson and Delilah.” (Paramount Pictures)
To DeMille, Delilah’s beauty doesn’t make her invincible any more than Samson’s strength makes him indestructible. First, both deceive themselves. But when they die to self-deception, they become a new woman and a new man.
Samson’s self-discovery starts when he confesses that his strength merely manifests God’s. Later, he learns that that strength may yet return if he humbles himself before God. Through the weakness of a woman and the enforced weakness of a strongman, God perfects his strength, showing that only strength (or beauty, in Delilah’s case) that’s ordered toward goodness and truth can be salvific.
You can watch “Samson and Delilah” on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Hoopla.
‘Samson and Delilah’
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Starring: Victor Mature, Hedy Lamarr
Not Rated
Running Time: 2 hours, 14 minutes
Release Date: Jan. 13, 1950
Rated: 3 stars out of 5
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Rudolph Lambert Fernandez is an independent writer who writes on pop culture.
