A Name Synonymous With Strength! by Dave Goode

 
I remember as a boy my family gathering around our big Magnavox television in the living room when a biblical epic was broadcast. One of my favorites was Cecil B. DeMille's SAMSON AND DELILAH (1949) starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. Of course I already knew the story about the Hebrew strongman and Philistine temptress from Sunday school. But the movie was so much like a sinew & sandal flick I couldn't help but love it. And after all the name Samson has become as synonymous with strength as Hercules.

One of the scenes I remember especially well comes when after Samson is blinded by the Philistines and he is brought to the temple of their god Dagon so that they can mock and make sport of him. I remember it for a comment my mother would make. When one of the Philistines remarks that " he looks like a man of iron " , or something like that.  My mother commented " Who are they kidding? He needs a brassiere." To be fair to Victor Mature she said the same thing about Johnny Weissmuller as he appeared in TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS. Whenever I think of my mother's remark it reminds me that Cecil B. DeMille had wanted Steve Reeves to play the role of Samson.

Oddly enough director DeMille wanted the Mr.America winner to drop down to 175 lbs. from his competitive weight of 215. His reasoning being that Samson's strength came from GOD and not his muscles. Good enough. My question is why hire a bodybuilder for the role and then tell him to lose the muscles that must have played a part in your hiring him for the role in the first place? In any case Victor Mature was the better actor. And his beefy , if undefined , physique made him a believable Samson.

And then of course there was Hedy Lamarr as the Philistine temptress Delilah whose name has become synonymous with betrayal. Her performance is all seductive stares and swaying hips. She set the standard for all the sirens of sinew & sandal cinema to follow. There is a funny story about Lamarr complaining to DeMille that Mature was trying to upstage her making sure in their scenes together his face was turned to the camera and her back was to the camera. DeMille replied " Do you think there is any man in the world who would rather look at his face instead of your a** ? "

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