I don't know if Victor Mature would have been my first choice to portray the role of Samson, but from his very first appearance on screen he seems to make it work. I didn't think the actor was as big as he was, he made the tearing down of the Temple of Dagon look credible, or as credible as anyone could to demolish an immense stone structure single handedly. Hedy Lamarr as the seductress Delilah was notably duplicitous and evil in her scheme to get revenge on the man who preferred her sister over herself, but I had to shake my head when I first saw Angela Lansbury cast in the role of Semadar. She actually was a very good looking woman in her early career, but I thought she was miscast in the role here. George Sanders was effective in his portrayal of the Saran of Gaza, but all the while I couldn't help noticing his remarkable resemblance to actor Robert Vaughn, who in 1949 would have still been a teenager, but that's who I thought of every time Sanders was on screen.
From my parochial school religious education, I recalled some of the story of Samson and the film seemed to follow it fairly closely for the most part. I didn't remember the part about blinding Samson while a prisoner of the Philistines, that was pretty major and something I'd completely forgotten. Where the story lost some credibility for this viewer was when Delilah's betrayal led to Samson having his hair cut short; to me it didn't look like too much was taken off the top. So one might infer that Samson's lack of strength was a product of his own mind, a superstition made real by his momentary lack of faith in God. That didn't seem to be implied by the story, but it's something I thought of.
I was intrigued by the names of Mike Mazurki and George Reeves in the opening credits but wasn't able to pick them out as the movie proceeded. Kind of hard to tell with the wildly colorful Philistine garb. Interestingly, the film makers chose a real life wrestler to play the part of Garmiskar; he went by the name of 'Wee Willie' Davis as a pro, having a handful of strongman roles in pictures of the era.
I recently watched a modern day remake of the Samson story starring Taylor James in the title role, a theatrical release that has more of a feel as a made for TV product. There have been other adaptations as well that I haven't seen, but it brings to mind one of the statements made by a Danite lamenting Samson's death at the end of this picture. He said "Men will tell his story for a thousand years". That's something the film makers definitely got right.
From my parochial school religious education, I recalled some of the story of Samson and the film seemed to follow it fairly closely for the most part. I didn't remember the part about blinding Samson while a prisoner of the Philistines, that was pretty major and something I'd completely forgotten. Where the story lost some credibility for this viewer was when Delilah's betrayal led to Samson having his hair cut short; to me it didn't look like too much was taken off the top. So one might infer that Samson's lack of strength was a product of his own mind, a superstition made real by his momentary lack of faith in God. That didn't seem to be implied by the story, but it's something I thought of.
I was intrigued by the names of Mike Mazurki and George Reeves in the opening credits but wasn't able to pick them out as the movie proceeded. Kind of hard to tell with the wildly colorful Philistine garb. Interestingly, the film makers chose a real life wrestler to play the part of Garmiskar; he went by the name of 'Wee Willie' Davis as a pro, having a handful of strongman roles in pictures of the era.
I recently watched a modern day remake of the Samson story starring Taylor James in the title role, a theatrical release that has more of a feel as a made for TV product. There have been other adaptations as well that I haven't seen, but it brings to mind one of the statements made by a Danite lamenting Samson's death at the end of this picture. He said "Men will tell his story for a thousand years". That's something the film makers definitely got right.