1950 – Samson and Delilah

Samson and Delilah – 1950

Ah, the Cecil B. DeMille biblical epic!  It has a charm all its own.  This one is the tale of the strong man, himself, Samson.  Most of the movie’s special effects, of course, centered around his super-human strength.  He wrestled a lion!  He slaughtered Philistines!  He brought down the temple!  And he was a moron, but that’s neither here nor there when it comes to the visual effects.

Samson, was played by Victor Mature.  I’ll briefly mention something about him that, while it wasn’t necessarily a special effect, was certainly a factor in creating the illusion of his strength.  His physique may have been the ideal 1950s version of fit and powerful, but going by today’s standards, he just looked pudgy and soft.  And it didn’t help that he had those extreme “bedroom eyes” that always makes him look incredibly sleepy, whether he wanted to or not.

The impressive special effects started off with the exciting fight in which he kills a lion with his bare hands.  In most of the sequence, you could tell the actor was toying with a real lion, so that was pretty cool.  True, there were a few quick close-up shots where a stuffed animal was obviously used, but that wasn’t too bad.

There were a couple of fast-paced fight sequences to keep the interest up.  The one in which he slaughtered a whole army with the jaw bone of an ass.  That one actually had a bit of animated lightning, powerful winds, swirling dust, and lots of chaos and screaming.  The stunt choreographer really earned his pay for that scene.  I especially liked when Samson lifted a chariot and overturned it along with its riders.

But the real climax of the movie was the destruction of the pagan temple.  The moment when the giant idol of the false god fell, was pretty spectacular, but it didn’t end there.  The massive pillars crumbled to the ground!  The walls began to topple!  There were people screaming as they were buried under the rubble.  The death and destruction were pretty cool!

But I can’t give the film a full five-star rating.  I’m not sure why or how, but it was hard for me to take all the effects, or the movie as a whole, very seriously.  There was a quality of campiness about the film that I can’t exactly seem to put my finger on.  The movie was trying to tell a serious and dramatic tale, but the whole production, including the special effects, felt too fake, too forced… too Hollywood.  But I have to admit, I have no idea what I’d change to overcome that elusive quality.  And I’ll also concede that it might just be my own preconceived notions about the film that are responsible for that assessment.  As filmmaking effects went, they were actually done pretty well, but I just can’t shake the subtle feeling of falseness that too often destroyed the illusions they were trying to create.