For the scene in which Samson kills the lion, Victor Mature refused to wrestle a tame movie lion. Told by Producer and Director Cecil B. DeMille that the lion had no teeth, Mature replied, "I don't want to be gummed to death, either." The scene shows a stuntman wrestling the tame lion, intercut with close-ups of Mature wrestling a lion skin.
This movie was in post-production when Sunset Blvd. (1950) was being shot at Paramount Pictures. In a scene where Gloria Swanson's character Norma Desmond visits a Paramount soundstage to see Producer and Director Cecil B. DeMille, the set of Delilah's tent in the Valley of Sorek was reassembled to show the director working. Henry Wilcoxon, Julia Faye, and others in costumes were seen shaking hands with Norma Desmond.
Much discussion took place during the shooting of the scene where Samson kisses Delilah as to whether a man kisses a woman with his eyes closed or open. Victor Mature insisted that "a fellow would be a chump to close his eyes" when kissing Hedy Lamarr. In the final shot, Mature closed, opened, and then closed his eyes again.
According to his 1959 autobiography "Groucho and Me", Groucho Marx was invited to a special screening of this movie and a Paramount Pictures executive asked him if he liked it. Groucho replied, "Well, there's just one glaring fault. No picture can hold my interest where the leading man's bust is larger than the leading lady's!"
With a $28 million gross domestically, this was Paramount Pictures' biggest hit since The Ten Commandments (1923).