A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

As a horror fan, I have been known to appreciate the occasional biblical epic, many a yarn from 'the good book' delivering as much sex, violence and general chaos as your average scary movie. This made-for-TV version of the oft-told tale Samson and Delilah has been watered down a bit for the medium, but there is still plenty to enjoy here, even if some of it is for the unintentional laughs.Dancer turned actor Antony Hamilton may have batted for the other side in real life, but he is convincingly macho here as the Hebrew beefcake with the flowing locks who stupidly puts his trust in promiscuous Philistine Delilah (sultry brunette Belinda Bauer). The supporting cast is also pretty damn good, with Max von Sydow as nasty Philistine governor Sidka, a young(ish) Daniel Stern as Samson's best bud Micah, and Cecil B. DeMille's Samson, Victor Mature, in a small role as the hero's father.As usual with this type of film, treachery and deceit abounds, the innocent tend to wind up dead, there are bloody battles galore, and a unquestionable faith in God helps in defeating the bad guys. Considering its humble origins (this is no massive Hollywood extravaganza by any means) the production values aren't too shabby, with decent sets and costumery; some cheap props, however, lead to some of that aforementioned hilarity, funniest bits being Samson's fight with a lion-skin rug and his smiting of an army with the rubber jaw-bone of an ass.

A couple of Australians, Anthony Hamilton and Belinda Bauer, play the title roles in this television version of Samson And Delilah. But this film is mostly known for hauling Victor Mature out of retirement to play the small role of Samson's father. During the film Mature is kept very clothed with flowing robes of the desert and I suspect that 71 Mature did not have quite the physique that he had when he was Samson back in the day with Cecil B. DeMille.In fact even with the way DeMille's spectacles are thought of today by more sophisticated audiences this Samson And Delilah comes off as a second company road show product. Whatever else DeMille did, he put style and sex into his film even with the Victorian era dialog that also went into them. Both the slaying of the Philistines with the ass's jawbone and the climatic pulling down of Dagon's temple were done so much better by Cecil. And no other film ever had the gaudy color cinematography than the DeMille Samson And Delilah.I also suppose this film really does belong on the big screen because of its subject matter. That's where I saw the DeMille version when Paramount re-released it when I was a lad.Belinda Bauer is a beautiful Delilah, but there was only one Hedy Lamarr.Veterans of some biblical films Max Von Sydow and Jose Ferrer contribute what they can, but it isn't enough.However after finally getting to see this it was nice to see Victor Mature in both his farewell performance and in the film in which he made the legendary quote that the reason he did the film was that "for the money they were paying me, I'd have put on a dress and played Samson's mother". Fortunately for Vic the producers got another big screen veteran Maria Schell to be Samson's mother.As for Mature he walks through the scenes like a man in a hurry to get back to his retirement and a ranch he owned in those years. The paycheck must have cleared. Mature as he grew older took himself less and less seriously, an interesting phenomenon in a town loaded with king size egos.This Samson And Delilah is all right, but you'll never see anything like what Cecil B. DeMille did with that story.

Okay but not entirely satisfying TV account of the life & times of Samson, the last judge of Israel who dared to love the very Philistine women whose male counterparts he was supposed to defend his people from, slayed his enemies with the jawbone of an ass (donkey/mule), lost his mighty strength thanks to the machinations of the lovely yet devious Delilah, was blinded, cast into slavery by his enemies who then shamed and humiliated him every chance they got afterwards... until he tore down their temple, killing himself in the process. Granted, the other versions didn't get everything right either.As the title character, the late Antony Hamilton (an openly gay/homosexual actor & former ballet dancer who sadly died of AIDS at the tender age of 43 in 1995) certainly looks the part in terms of his physique. Like Eric Thal in the Samson TV film made in 1996 (a year after Hamilton died) unlike the movie Samson of 1949, the late Victor Mature (who died in 1999 and had a cameo in this TV film as the father of Samson, his first in many years since he retired from the film business and ultimately his last as he returned to retirement soon after), the 6'2" golden boy Hamilton actually was muscular and athletic looking, whereas Mature was just stocky/bulky looking. And yet, despite his superior physique and overall sincere performance, Hamilton lacked the magnetism that Victor Mature exuded so effortlessly, even though Hamilton was probably the better actor (a case Mature himself would not have argued over, as Mature knew he wasn't exactly the greatest actor in the world anyway).Belinda Bauer is seductively beautiful as Delilah, though one has to wonder: why is Delilah always given so much screen time when her actual part in the story, while crucial, was very small in the Bible.Max Von Sydow and the other actors carry themselves well enough.The production values waver between acceptable to ridiculous (the jawbone Samson uses to slay his enemies is way too big), though the final scene where Samson tears down the temple is pretty impressive.

This movie heralded the "introduction" of bona fide Australian adonis Antony Hamilton, though he had done television and a low budget cult film, "Nocturna" previously. Hamilton in various stages of undress is the only reason to watch this film -- which is a good enough one -- though in the version I saw some of the body parts were vaselined out. The dialogue is 20th century American dreck; Victor Mature, the movie star Samson, gives an embarrassing performance eating a chicken leg; and Belinda Bauer is no Hedy Lamarr and let's face it, Hedy Lamarr was not the most exciting actress to hit the screen, even if she was one of the most beautiful. This movie concentrates on bodies making out in the pool, a near-naked Samson getting tossed into the lake by his buddies, love-making between nearly naked Samson and nearly naked Delilah and good looks at Samson's muscles throughout. As far as I'm concerned, this is a no miss, having nothing whatsoever to do with the story. It is depressing, however, to realize that Hamilton died at such a young age and, all kidding aside, that is a very sad loss.