Samson and Delilah (1949) on Netflix
NR19492h 14mDramaHistoryRomance
Samson, leader of the Danites under Philistine rule, plans to marry the Philistine woman Semadar. Ahtur courts her too, and her younger sister Delilah is drawn to Samson.
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- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.8/1010,130 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes56%
Plot summary
Samson is a Danite Hebrew whose mother Hazelelponit dedicated him under Nazirite vows at birth. He leads and protects the Danites, who live under Philistine rule. He plans to marry Semadar, a Philistine woman, and Ahtur, the military governor of Dan, courts her as well. At Semadar's house before a Philistine lion hunt, Samson meets Delilah, her younger sister, who is drawn to him. The hunting party leaves him behind, and Delilah helps him reach the hunting ground first. A young lion confronts them, and Samson kills it with his bare hands.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Samson and Delilah (1949)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- DeMille wanted Victor Mature to fight the lion barehanded in the full shot, but Mature refused and a stunt man did the scene; the double suffered a clawing down his arm, so the wound had to be painted onto Mature's arm for the close-ups.
- Although the film tells a biblical battle against the Philistines, Samson's people are never called Israelites, Hebrews or Jewish in it, only Danites; the article links that avoidance to the anti-Communist witch hunt, when Hollywood was sensitive to the industry being seen as Jewish-run.
- The toppling of the temple of Dagon, the film's penultimate scene, cost $150,000 and took a year to shoot.
- Burt Lancaster was considered for Samson but declined because of a bad back, and bodybuilder Steve Reeves, another candidate, refused the studio's demand that he tone down his physique for the part.
- DeMille found his way into the story in Samson the Nazarite, a little-known novel by Russian-Jewish author Vladimir Jabotinsky, which combined Delilah with the younger sister of Samson's wife into one person.
- A separate 37-foot high temple model, with a 17-foot Dagon statue, was destroyed three times to shoot it from different angles, and its footage was joined to the full-scale set with a Paramount-built "motion repeater system" that repeated camera moves exactly.
- An actual Samson and Delilah set was rebuilt at Paramount for Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, so that DeMille could play himself at work when the fictional silent star Norma Desmond visits him.
- Kasey Rogers screen-tested for Miriam, the Danite girl who loves Samson, but DeMille told her she was too pretty and too young; she played a Philistine spectator instead, credited as Laura Elliot.
