'Samson and Delilah' is the film that Cecile B. DeMille is shown making during his cameo in 'Sunset Boulevard', that brief snippet is principally what I knew of the movie, that and the Bible story on which it is based. Upon reading that narrative in Judges 13 - 16 on my current read through of the Old Testament, I decided that was a good excuse to finally see the film. I was also mildly surprised to read that 'Samson and Delilah', which was released in December of 1949, went on to be the highest grossing film of 1950, $25.6 million off a $3 million budget.
This movie is not very good, a silly, corny Biblical epic with brightly-colored costumes and sets. The story is tweaked to make Samson's two Philistine love interests, Semader (Angela Lansbury) and Delilah (Hedy Lamar) sisters, to give the latter a more personal motivation for her betrayal, blaming Samson for the death of her sister and father. Samson's strength is said to come from his never cutting his hair, which aside from a not very convincing braid is hardly long. The acting also isn't very impressive, the dialogue about the same, it's honestly a pretty bad movie. George Sanders "I'm better then this" performance as the Philistine King, the occasional moment of spectical, and Hedy Lamar with her sexy outfits are about all that make this watchable. *1/2
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