SAMSON IN SILENT FILMS

Previously Balladeer’s Blog looked at variations of the Samson saga, including Islamic versions and other non-Biblical accounts. This time around I’ll examine silent movies about the long-haired strongman. 

SAMSON AND DELILAH (1902) – This 6-minute short was directed by Ferdinand Zecca, Walter Pathe’s right-hand man. This film has survived and is an interesting historical piece. It’s the earliest surviving silent movie about Samson, the iconic Zecca’s first Samson film, plus Samson and Delilah is one of the silent era shorts that were tinted by hand – frame by frame. 

Unfortunately, the production also suffers some of the worst shortcomings from that time period when silent flicks were still groping their way forward. We get painted backdrops, an unmoving camera, very limited credits, hilariously cheap props and insane levels of overacting.

This 1902 effort opens with Samson’s “labor” of tearing off the gate of Gaza, then just dumping it rather than carrying it away. We get other standard bits from the tale of this Biblical Judge including, of course, the seductive Philistine woman Delilah learning that the secret of Samson’s strength lies in his uncut hair. 

She cuts his hair to rob him of his strength, then turns him over for captivity and enslavement turning a corn mill. Zecca skips having Samson blinded in this version, and in lieu of the traditional taunting by his captors in the temple of Dagon, our hero is titillated by dancing girls just out of reach.

With his strength returning, Samson tears down the structure, crushing himself and the dancing girls. His spirit is then escorted up to Heaven by angels. Zecca would revisit this subject matter in 1908.

THE STORY OF SAMSON (1908) – Also released under the title Samson and Delilah, this silent film had THREE directors, with Ferdinand Zecca the most prominent. This time around the movie starts with Samson as an infant whose parents Manoah and Zelalponit dedicate him to a lifetime of service to God.   

Jumping to his adult years, Samson (Louis Ravet) is the mightiest champion of the Jews in their war against the Philistines. Eventually he tears off the Gaza gate and the tale moves along to Delilah wheedling the secret of his strength from him after he casually rends the chains she used on him.

Samson is captured – and in this version blinded – and put to use as a slave turning a wheel to grind corn. The Philistines, who have failed to note that their captive’s hair has grown back, drag him into the Temple of Dagon and try to force him to kneel to their idols.

Samson refuses and tears down the columns of the temple, killing himself and the crowd of jeering Philistines before rising to Heaven.

A review from Moving Picture World has survived – “A wonderfully beautiful and realistic reproduction of the Bible story of Samson. The stage setting is unusually well handled. The acting is good, and in no instance overdone, while the coloring leaves nothing to be desired.

        “The strongest scene, where the crippled Samson is forced to submit to having his eyes burned out, made the audience sit still in breathless horror. The scene where he is lashed into turning the huge wheel is another which causes the audience to make signs of deep sympathy. The close never fails to bring a round of vigorous applause. Some in the audience at one theater were heard to say that it was the finest film seen in many a day.”  

SAMSON (1914) – This hour-long film was directed by J. Farrell MacDonald and starred J. Warren Kerrigan as Samson. Unfortunately, it is among the many, many silent movies that have not survived.

However, we do know from contemporary sources that it was the most detailed cinematic presentation of the Samson saga. Samson begins with the angel visiting the future judge’s elderly father and mother – Manoah and Zelalponit.

The angel promises them that, despite their advanced age, a son will be born to them and as long as they never cut his hair he will free the Jews from the tyranny of the Philistines. As Samson grows to adulthood his massive strength is marveled at by the entire community.

Presently, he plans to marry the Philistine woman Zorah and accompanies his parents to Timmath to meet her. Along the way Samson slays a lion to protect them, and we get many more familiar elements of the Samson story:

a) Bees build a honeycomb in the remains of the slain lion, inspiring Samson’s wedding day riddle;

b) No guests can guess the solution to the riddle until Zorah gets Samson to tell her and she tells those guests;

c) Angry at Zorah’s betrayal, our hero storms off and sulks for months;

d) When he goes back to reconcile with Zorah, her father has already given her to another man;

e) Samson burns the cornfields of the Philistines in retaliation;

f) The Philistines battle Samson on the field of Ramath-Lehi, where he slays a thousand of them with the jawbone of an ass;

g) Samson makes off with the gate of Gaza;

h) Our hero has an affair with Delilah, who eventually coaxes out of him the secret of his strength;

i) Delilah cuts Samson’s hair and turns him over to the Philistines, who blind him and use him as a corn mill slave;

j) Samson’s hair grows back and his partying captors drag him to the Temple of Dagon to taunt him further.

k) Our title character brings down the temple on himself and the others, and – in this version – with his dying breaths he drags his body over to where Delilah lies dead and perishes beside her.

Future silent movie comedians Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach appeared in Samson as Philistine extras. Moving Picture World’s review read: 

“It would be hard to find a finer Samson than is Warren Kerrigan, who is more than the average in size, is perfect physically and is youthful and graceful. It is plain that the picture’s producer has studied Dore, the great French artist, famous for his Biblical engravings, and has profited much by it.

          “There are excellent artistic scenes all through the offering, such as the invasion of Judea by the Philistines, the temple of Dagon, and many of mob scenes. But the action lacks dramatic quality and interest, for the scenario is spineless. Spectators who are not readers of the Bible will hardly be able to comprehend the full significance of the picture.”

            “The interior scenes and backgrounds are for the most part commendable. Manoah’s house is spacious and full of the Orient, while the temple scenes, including the idol of the god, are delightfully like the Dore picture temples.”     

SAMSON AND DELILAH (1922) – There were TWO silent film versions of Samson and Delilah in 1922. This first one was a 15-minute short directed by Edward J. Collins starring W.D. Waxman as Samson and “Mademoiselle de Valia” as Delilah. 

By 1922 silent movies were nearing their zenith in terms of artistry, yet this clumsy effort seems like a primitive flick from around 1910 or 1912. All the action is covered by narration cards, with the actors left to make faces and gesticulate in their dull scenes.

Samson, famous for killing a lion, instead wears the skin of a leopard (?) and Delilah visibly stumbles a bit over one of Samson’s fallen foemen at one point. I could go on and on, but this disappointing production is too boring to be worth it.

Collins flies through to Samson’s betrayal into the hands of the Philistines and his subsequent death, managing to drain all drama from the famous story. This film should never be used to introduce someone to silent movies so that it doesn’t sour their taste for them permanently.

SAMSON UND DELILAH (1922) – The quality and the running time skyrocket in this Austrian film directed & co-written by THE Alexander Korda and starring his wife (despite the different spelling) Maria Corda. A more fitting title for this movie might be Delilah and Some Guy, because Alexander makes his wife the central character while Samson barely registers.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this 88-minute production is the way it seems to dabble in themes that make it far ahead of its time. Even if Korda’s aim was just to once again make his beautiful wife Maria the main attraction, the overall effect makes Delilah the central and very sympathetic character.

I’ll return to that theme in a moment. First, let me point out that Samson und Delilah borrowed from D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) and Carl Dreyer’s Leaves from Satan’s Notebook (1920). It did that by presenting a modern-day storyline which paralleled the events of the ancient Samson and Delilah tale.

The modern and ancient versions unfold episodically side by side as the movie goes along. Maria Corda plays the Philistine woman Delilah in the distant past, AND the modern-day opera singer Julia Sorel, who is playing Delilah on stage.

In ancient times, the story is presented from Delilah’s point of view. Viewers first see her as a young lady being sold into slavery, and as she matures, she learns to use her sexuality to subtly control her alleged masters in ways they don’t even suspect.   

Moreover, when she eventually meets the Gaza Gate-stealing, lion and tiger (?) slaying Samson (Alfredo Boccolini), Delilah’s efforts are for once looked at in context – by her lights she is doing right by her people the Philistines. She is not truly a villainess even though she is doomed in both her ancient and modern-day counterparts.

And, back to that modern-day variation of the Delilah story, this is where Alexander Korda lost the plot a bit and settled for a less than smooth parallel with the ancient storyline. Our opera singer Julia Sorel is a Primadonna whose tour de force performance as Delilah dazzles the Russian Prince-in-Exile Andrei Andrewiwitch.

NOTE: Andrei was portrayed by Franz Herterich, who also played the Philistine King Abimilech in the ancient portion of the film.

Prince Andrei invites Julia to his yacht to perform her aria for his guests and she accepts. However, it turns out that there are no guests – it’s just her, Andrei and his servants & crew. It’s obvious what the Russian has in mind, but as Julia plays for time while keeping him at bay, the story gets bold with its modern-day Samson equivalent.   

An anarchist assassin named Ettore Ricco (THE Paul Lukas), whose cover is singing tenor in the opera company staging Samson and Delilah, targets Andrei. He covertly boards the yacht and uses a bomb to force everyone to submit to his demands. 

Ms. Sorel, inspired by her current stage role, decides to try seducing Ricco in order to set him up for defeat. The valiant effort fails, and the anarchist sets off their bomb, killing himself, Julia, Andrei and the others.

Interestingly for 1922, the parallel being drawn between what amounts to a terrorist bomber and Samson is daring, whether one agrees with it or not. For modern viewers the fact that Samson’s ancient story is partly set in Gaza may prompt us to read more into that parallel than was intended.

However, intended or not, it does call to mind the modern-day Samson Option while also comparing Samson to a suicide bomber (the anarchist in the movie). If Korda was not specifically thinking of Middle East politics, it might better be compared to the broader theme of Mutually Assured Destruction in any conflict.

All that aside, Samson und Delilah is still hailed as a film even though it bombed at the box office in 1922. The sets are often compared to those in the Italian silent epic Cabiria from 1914.

Given the enduring fame of Alexander Korda and his wife Maria, I’m VERY surprised that Samson und Delilah hasn’t been revived and over-analyzed by those so inclined. At present, the film is so overlooked that there are only TWO reviews of it on IMDb as of this writing.

FOR MY LOOK AT SILENT FILMS ABOUT THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST CLICK HERE.

FOR MY LOOK AT THE 1911 ITALIAN SILENT FILM ADAPTATION OF DANTE’S INFERNO CLICK HERE.