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. Continue reading
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