SAMSON

aka Sansone (I)
1961
Italy
aka Sansone (I)
Cineproduzioni Associati
Director : Gianfranco Parolini
Script : Giovanni Simonelli, Gianfranco Parolini, Oscar D'Amico
Music : Carlo Innocenzi
Cinematography : Francesco Izzarelli
Cast : Brad Harris (Sansom), Mara Berni (Romilde), Alan Steel [Sergio Ciani] (Millstone), Brigitte Corey [Luisella Boni] (Janine), Serge Gainsbourg (Warkalla), Carlo Tamberlani (Botan), Irena Prosen, Walter Reeves, Manja Golec, Nick Stefanini, Gianfranco Gasparri, Romano Ghini

This is available on German language DVD from Amazon.de

Whilst out hunting one day, Samson (Brad Harris) bumps into a hefty chappie called Millstone (Alan Steel), who has stolen a dead boar off him (it's all he rage nowadays, boarjacking). After a protracted bout of fisticuffs ('By the lame foot of Vulcan !') they are interrupted by soldiers from the Kingdom of Sulom and Sammy-boy is taken prisoner.

Sulom is ruled by an obviously evil (she's a brunette) Princess, Romilda (Mara Berni), who seems to be a big fan of the little known sport of 'multiple greasy man wrestling'. Along with her newt like advisor, the head mercenary Warkalla (Serge Gainsbourg), they have stashed the true queen in the dungeons and assumed power - hoping to get their hands on the fabled treasure of the kingdom.

It soon turns out that Millstone (who looks nothing like Millhouse from The Simpsons, unfortunately) is one of a number of rebels bent on overthrowing this crooked regime. He soon teams up with a freshly escaped Samson in an attempt to restore power to the rightful rulers. They resolve that the best way to do this is to directly challenge Varkaller during 'The day of The Mercenaries', an annual event which allows prospective powerbrokers to stake their challenge by undergoing a series of deadly challenges.

I have to admit that I was suffering from something of a dose of fatigue when I viewed this particular item, and as such was probably not in the best of moods for what turned out to be a pretty standard peplum. The inevitable narrative melodramatics left me slightly impatient, which is rather unfortunate because Samson is by no means a bad film. It just lacks that certain something to make it stand out from pectoral-flexing crowd.

Certainly less epic in scale than some of Parolini's later entries in the genre, this features the inevitable comedy sidekick, a liberal dose of inventive tortures and a relatively involving climax - which seems to end rather too swiftly for it's own good.

Little Gianfranco Gasparri, who plays the young, rightful ruler of Sulom, filled a number of juvenile roles in Peplums during the early sixties (see also Fury of Hercules (La Furia di Ercole, 61) and Goliath Against the Giants (Goliath contri i giganti, 62). Some fourteen years later he would drop the 'Gian' from his name and star as Inspector Mark Terzi in a succesful series of crime films for Stelvio Massi: Blood Sweat and Fear (Mark il poliziotto, 75), Mark spara per primo (75) and Mark Strikes Again (Mark colpisce ancora, 76). After a motorcycle accident in the early '80s he was confined to a wheelchair - a fact that unfortunately curtailed his potential as a box office draw - and died in 1999.

Matt Blake