Son of Samson (1960) User Reviews

Maciste To The Rescue

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 5 December 2010]

Although as a fictional character Maciste did not have biblical origins in this film he is identified in the title as the Son Of Samson. Although why Samson the Hebrew's son would be bothering to help out Egyptians who kept his people in bondage for generations is beyond me. There really isn't any good history there.

Maciste has been played by many actors from way back in the earliest days of the silent screen and in this peplum epic is played by Mark Forest. Egypt's pharaoh has died under mysterious circumstances and his second wife trophy queen is suspected of foul play. The slinky and sexy Chelo Alonso has a way with potions and such and she's got the new pharaoh, her stepson wrapped around her finger. Alonso is Persian and as her countrymen start taking over the government and enslaving the people, Maciste comes in like in westerns, spaghetti or American, and does in the bad guys and saves Egypt from a Persian takeover.

As a sculpted body Forest is quite the eyeful, maybe even more of an eyeful than Steve Reeves. The sets look like they might have been used in The Ten Commandments. And whether taking a ladder full of soldiers, fighting lions and crocodiles, or dealing with the charms of Alonso, Forest fills the bill. He even registers an expression or two during the course of the film.

Fans of the peplum genre of films should approve.

Inauspicious debut for Maciste

[michael-3204 · 4/10 · 2 January 2017]

Maciste was very useful for the Peplum genre since the Italian folk hero wasn't rooted in any particular mythological tradition. He could turn up anywhere, "born of the rock," as Maciste (Italian American bodybuilder Mark Forest, who also played Hercules this same year) explains in the first Maciste entry of the Peplum revival that began in the late 1950s. Here, he turns up in ancient Egypt, which is being overrun with Persian marauders aided by the evil Queen Smedes (Chelo Alonso), who in the first few minutes has her uncooperative Pharoah husband assassinated. A chance encounter has Maciste befriending the Pharoah's hapless son, who is eventually bewitched by the beguiling Alonso, but at least Maciste knows that the guy is basically okay.

There is the usual amount of double-crossing and mistaken ideas about various characters motivations, and most of the requite Peplum tropes, including the hero defeating lions and alligators and soldiers. Maciste gets several opportunities to perform feats of strength and Forest acquits himself well through all of it, flexing and looking strong. But this isn't one of the more engaging or entertaining entries in the genre, which was kicking into high gear. It's not as interesting as Forest's other 1960 Peplum, "Goliath and the Dragon" a.k.a. "The Revenge of Hercules." It largely wastes Alonso, who normally can be a dynamic presence in these films. She gets one decent dance number and has moderate fun trying to seduce Maciste, and of course she looks great and has good costumes. But the film could have done more with her, and suffers for not doing so.

The English-language version was retitled "Son of Samson," with some dialogue added about Maciste maybe being a son of Samson. It's unnecessary, doesn't make much sense, and doesn't really matter. Maciste was largely unfamiliar to non-Italian audiences, so most of the Maciste films were retitled with other heroes and often the character was called someone else. Here, at least, he gets to keep the name if not the title.

Not as bad as I thought it would be

[b_moviebuff · 5/10 · 17 August 2006]

Well for the first half of this entry the acting is very wooden but somewhere down the line the cast start to look interested, I feared the worst when I bought this on DVD but was surprised just how good it is (in parts!), our hero saves a bunch of babes...sorry slaves from capture and unites with the people against the tyrants...well you should get the idea by now if you watch these kind of movies,as always Mark Forest looks superb as Machiste son of Samson and his muscular frame has the ladies in question in a spin, one word of warning though, some battle scenes are incredibly brutal and gory, this surprised me greatly as I don't think this would have been passed by British censors but as these epics come and go a good entry into the genre.

One of many imported muscleman epics from the sixties, but with the extraordinary participation of the delicious Chelo Alonso.

[TheVid · 12 March 2003]

Mark Forest (bodybuilder Lou Degni) provides the beef in this relatively lavish Egyptian-style muscleman movie, whose production design is quite good for a low-budget, Italian potboiler. But for those who enjoy the genre, the highlight is the voluptuous Chelo Alonso, whose elegantly stiff performance as the evil empress is supplanted by the delightful belly dance she performs to seduce our lifeless hero midway through the picture. Adolescent kitsch working extraordinarily well as a fetishistic flesh fantasy. Terrific.

Feed him to the crocodiles

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 24 December 2014]

****SPOILERS**** One of the many 1960's muscle man movies has the musclebound Brooklyn boy Mark Forest, real name Lorenzo Louis Degni, as Maciste the Son of Samson come to the rescue of the enslaved Egyptian, by the Persians, people. Maciste who despite him being a Hebrew one of their mortal enemies the grateful Egyptians will take any kind of help they can get to have themselves freed from the evil Persian installed Queen Smedes, Chelo Alonso. It's Queen Smedes who with the help of her #1 confident and adviser Grand Visir, Zvonimir Rogoz,who had Pharaoh Armiteo I, Carlo Tamberlani, assassinated when he was about free the slaves, mostly Hebrews, in Egypt that had his totally mind controlled son, by Queen Smedes, Pharaoh "Kenny" Kenanuma, Angelo Zanolli, ascend to the throne.

This, freeing the Egyptians, was at first no concern of his but with Maciste by falling in love with the beautiful Egyptian slave girl Nofret, Federica Ranchi, he now decided to become a biblical Abraham Linclon and free the slaves Maciste-style by beating the crap of their enslavers. Using his super strength and military expertise Maciste starts up a slave rebellion that almost fizzles out when he falls under the spell of Queen Smedes and goes soft in both the head and muscle. Finally getting down to business in realizing what his job is Maciste gets his act together and starts up a major uprising not just among the slaves but entire Egyptian people against the hated Persians.

****SPOILERS**** With the people, slaves & Egyptian, storming the palace Maciste, in avoiding getting his hands dirty, has a lynch mob do in the Grand Visir as as for the evil Queen Smedes she ends up as crocodile food by jumping in the crock infested Nile river to avoid justice. Maciste with his job done now goes into the desert to get some well needed rest as well as sleep from all the action he went through in the movie.

Italian sword and sandal

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 30 January 2023]

Ancient Egypt is being ravaged by Persia. The men are killed while the women are sent into slavery. Pharaoh Armiteo I gets betrayed by his Queen Smedes and murdered. His son Kenamun becomes the new Pharaoh, but the Queen brainwashes him with a magic amulet. While on his desert journeys, Kenamun had saved the life of strong man Maciste (Mark Forest). Maciste is dismayed by Kenamun's apparent turn against the people and intends to sneak into the palace to talk to the new Pharaoh.

This is an Italian sword and sandal flick. The production is pretty big and they did film a few scenes in Egypt. Surprisingly, muscle man Mark Forest is not necessarily the worst actor. He's not good, but he's not the worst. The problem is that there is plenty bad acting all over the place. This is safely secured in B-movie territory.

Maciste Is In Egypt

[Rainey-Dawn · 2/10 · 20 January 2017]

Maciste is in Egypt where an evil queen is out to seduce him into her villainous ways, to get what she wants.

The name Samson appears in the title but this has no relationship to the biblical Samson. The film was distributed to English-speaking countries as Son of Samson but in all of the original films Maciste has no relationship to anyone named Samson. Italian titles translate into English as "Maciste in the Valley of the Kings" and it's aka "Maciste the Mighty" It's a film that barely kept me interested in it at times, other times was looking up more information on the internet about the film which was more interesting than the film itself.

2/10

Golly!

[Steve_Nyland · 7/10 · 17 November 2017]

Good gracious, what a movie. Been watching my Peplums again after a need to better understand the character of Hercules came up. Sure, he's called Maciste (or however its pronounced) in this one but it's essentially the same guy: Muscle-bound demigod begotten from the Sire of Zeus/Jupiter wandering the Earth righting wrongs. Here he comes upon another Peplum Egyptian Pharaonic era royal court beset by all sorts of fascinating evils furthered by the attention-riveting Chelo Alonso, perfectly as the intelligent yet bloodthirsty slave girl come to be Queen of an Empire.

Or whatever — This is one of the most violent and potentially disturbing Sword & Sandal mini- epic I can recall, with an implied body count in the thousands as she has entire human settlements wiped out to further her ambition for ultimate power. Humans torched alive on top of elaborate towers is a favored method of dispatching the unworthy, but our favorite will always be the Crocodile Pool into which assorted cast members are tossed to suffer hideously as they are devoured alive.

And you know, something tells me we're missing a proper introduction to the plot device, as a key character is dispatched fairly early into proceedings, later appearing in a manner in which their identity cannot be confirmed and is supposed to be of bother to the story. Because, I suspect, he was devoured whole by crocodiles in a scene removed from the surviving print, which only mentions the Crocodile Pool towards the end of the proceedings. This totally defies how Pepla are usually structured and in a manner which can only be the result of external meddling.

Much like a James Bond film the best Peplum thrillers establish an elaborately horrifying execution or torture device for its crazed villain's inept underlings fairly early on. The threat of ending up thrown into its workings then hangs over the rest of the plot, indeed driving its plot once the Hero has come into the story. And sure enough Mark Forrest's very capable Maciste is indeed thrown bodily into the Crocodile Pool at what would have been exactly the right moment — If we had known about the Crocodile Pool previously.

Since we do not my suspicions were raised upon a 2nd viewing when going back to make sure the movie really was as cool as I'd thought it was. And "Son of Samson" is, just off-balanced by not having the Crocodile Pool established in the mind's eye of the viewer prior to Maciste being tossed into it. And a 3rd viewing established the likely place where our introduction to its horrors should have been cemented. There is no reason for the plot to insist that the identity of a certain key character is anyone but that person … Unless, that is, he had been devoured by the crocodiles & a dummy used in his place.

The good news is that even after three viewings the film remains of fascination and deserves a restoration. Ms. Alonso is nothing shy of a revelation and her final doom is perhaps the most disturbing moment in Peplum history since Kirk Douglas had his run-in with the Lepers. I'll even forgive the movie for not having a rampaging monster for a big showdown match. Trust me: Maciste has his hands full in this one just contending with all the evil scheming afoot. Fitting in screen time for a giant cyclops or mechanical moon-men would have proved a distraction, and the film concludes on exactly the right note to leave the viewer wondering, "Wait … what was that again, with the thing?"

Great sets bad production!!

[elo-equipamentos · 4/10 · 8 May 2018]

Could be a good time to Maciste if the producers adjust some ridiculous scenes along the picture, the screenplay is terrible to start and the storyline is lack of creativity apart all this, the greatest sets ever done weren't enough this time, also my copy from VHS was dubbed to english version became worst the whole thing, l'm a great fan of those semi-gods of greek mitology, I have a lot of these good movies of the Hercules, Sansom, Goliah and Maciste, they are amazing characters who deserves an appropiate good productions to make those magnificents movies, further Chelo alonso overcame all this mess and share us your glorious beauty!!!

Resume:

First watch: 1986 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD-R / Rating: 4.5

Better than average Peplum thanks to robust Mark Forest and expert filmmaker Carlo Campogalliani

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 18 April 2012]

Mythological epic with a magnificent he-man as is Mark Forest and set in Under Egypt whose center is ¨Sais¨ while High Egypt the capitol is ¨Tanis¨ . The setting is the 11th century BC ancient Egypt , when the country is dominated by Persian occupiers who have enslaved the people . At the beginning appears some impressive images with slaves buried until neck and serpents surrounding and other frames with persons burn on poles . Pharaoh Armiteo I (Carlo Tamberlani) is planning a rebellion against Persians . But his gorgeous wife Smedes (Chelo Alonso) aware and kill him . The young prince Kenamus (Zanolli) becomes the new successor , but he is deceived and spelled by means of a potion who turns into slave to Smedes . The bouncing Maciste helps the youngster Kenamun and reunites an army of rebels to take on the Smedes troops . Our protagonist unhesitatingly goes into action and must use his strength to save the successor from villain Smedes and against the pharaoh's former counselor . Then Maciste becomes inextricably involved in a war between usurpers under the command the Egyptian troops against an army of helpless rebels . Along the way Maciste or Hercules or Goliath frees slaves , moves rocks and fights a lion and Crocs .

French/Italian co-production with haunting scenarios , wonderful outdoors and rousing production design . This is a good spaghetti , myth-opera with action , love , battles and luxurious landscapes . The movie has not mythological accuracy neither expecting historical . Breathtaking scenes when is elevated an Egyptian column and overwhelming final battle with surprisingly gory scenes . As usual ,the beautiful Cuban dancer/actress plays an erotic dancing with veil included before Maciste that was censored in Spain . In the picture turns up Peplum ordinaries as Vira Silenti , the veteran Carlo Tamberlani and Andrea Fantasia who along with his brother Franco Fantasia worked much as maestros of weapons in this genre . Interesting screenplay by Ennio De Concini , a prolific writer who wrote a lot of Spaghetti , Gialli and Peplum . This spectacular Sword and Sandal movie displays a colorful and glimmer cinematography by Riccardo Pallotini , filmed on location in Egypt including the pyramids and temples of Hatsetsup , Karnak , Luxor , among others . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Carlo Innocenzi . The motion picture is well directed by Carlo Campogalliani who made many tales of this kind . He along with Vittorio Cottafavi and Giorgio Ferroni continued to realize films in the historical-spectacular style , at which he developed a considerable skill and mastery .

Mark Forest , in his first film, is perfect as the mythical hero who encounters many dangerous situations while trying to save a pharaoh of numerous odds . Forest who played the mythic Maciste in great number of movies was randomly assigned the identity of Hercules , Goliath , Samson or Aron for U.S. viewing . Bouncing and strong Forest was the second American actor bodybuilder , after Steve Reeves , to be recruited by Italian producers to star in Peplum films . The muscle-man Forest left allegedly the sword and sandals genre for the Opera . He used the amount of money he made acting as hero and gladiator films in Italy to study Opera , he currently teaches in the Los Angeles zone . He was one along with Ed Fury , Dan Vadis,Brad Harris , Alan Steel , Reg Park , Gordon Scott whom to seek fortune acting absurdly as muscle mythological figures but nobody topped Steve Reeves in popularity . He only starred Peplum such as : 1964 Hércules against sons of sun , 1964 Lion of Tebas , 1964 Maciste Nell'inferno Gengis Khan , 1964 Maciste, Gladiatore Sparta , 1963 Maciste Contro i Mongoli ,1963 Maciste, l'Eroe più Grande del Mondo ,1962 Maciste, Gladiatore più forte Mondo , 1961 Maciste, the Son of Hercules , 1960 La Venganza De Ercole . Rating : Above average muscle-men fodder and better than most muscles operas-spaghetti,thanks to Mark Forest and by Peplum specialist as is the director Carlo Campogalliani .

Mark Forest's second peplum, set in 11th century BC Egypt

[django-1 · 8/10 · 4 September 2003]

Most peplums with a Yugoslavian partner in the international co-production tend to have interesting location photography and a different visual style, and this one is no exception. The setting is the 11th century BC Egypt, where the nation is controlled by Persian occupiers who have enslaved the people. A well-intentioned pharoah who tries to defend the people is killed and his evil, manipulative wife (well-played by Chelo Alonso, in the tradition of over-the-top female villains in old Republic serials!) takes over and sells out the nation. On his return home to straighten things out, the pharoah's son, Kenamun, runs into Mark Forest (as Maciste, the Son of Samson) and the plot kicks into action. The plot also includes a mystical necklace that makes the wearer a zombie ready to be ordered around (shades of old serials once again!), and of course there is some romance. Mark Forest is as handsome as, say, James Darren, his physique is well-used in a number of difficult "tasks", and he is believable in the romantic scenes as well as the fights. I've seen 11 of his 12 1960s films and enjoy all of them. Interesting visuals, a unique setting, a fine female antagonist, Mark Forest's exciting presence--definitely an above-average sword-and-sandal opus for fans of the genre. Director Carlo Campogalliani was involved with many excellent historical films with American stars: Ed Fury's first Ursus movie; Steve Reeves in Goliath and the Barbarians; Lex Barker in Captain

Falcon; Jack Palance and Guy Madison in Sword of the Conqueror (that's one crying out for a DVD transfer--the circulating copies are very splicey). Check some of them out. A copy of this film was shown at UCLA recently at a peplum festival-- if there's a copy good enough quality to be screened there, it needs to be transferred to DVD now!

"He has been seduced by the loveliness of the Queen".

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 27 August 2020]

And indeed, the queen is very lovely, but the epitome of seductive evil, played by Chelo Alonso, rivaling Joan Collins in "Land of the Pharaohs" and Bella Darvi in "The Egyptian" without the camp quotient of Anne Baxter in "The Ten Commandments" or the maturity of Elizabeth Taylor in "Cleopatra" or in the obscurity of Jeanne Crain in "Queen of the Nile". This is the closest that a sword and sandal adventure got to an epic of biblical proportions, obviously taking advantage of some standing sets from other big looking films, and every bit as enjoyable with all the elements of the great classics (and the not so great ones) I mention above.

Leading hunk Mark Forest is barely covered as the hero, out to free the slaves that Queen Alonso has subjugated as she prepares to kill her pharaoh husband and take over the throne. She's alluring yet treacherous, and when she sets her sights on the Hebrew muscle man, she works right away on her seduction, basically turning on him the moment he denies her the pleasures she seeks. "Feed him to the crocodiles!" she declares, and this becomes an instant contest between Forest and Johnny Weismueller as to who could wrestle a rubber amphibian the most realistically.

Visually, this isn't just stunning for its use of the huge sets, but for the incredible cruelty as seen for the many extras either buried up to their necks with poisoned snakes right at their jugular or on burning pyres. The many cast members are barely covered in clothing, so it is slightly erotic as well. It is interesting to note that the character of the man that the queen has her husband assassinated for doesn't at all seem very rugged, and perhaps isn't really at all interested in the queen for love. The scale of the film makes this look more impressive on the small screen than it probably was on the big screen, especially with epics like "Ben-Hur" and "Spartacus" fresh in the viewer's minds.

Son of Samson

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 25 December 2023]

Evil Queen Smedes (Chelo Alonso) controls Persian-occupied Egypt while keeping her stepson-rightful ruler Kenamun (Angelo Zanolli)-under the influence of a mind-numbing medallion. Now, it's up to the mighty Maciste (Mark Forest) to lead a daring revolt in order to overthrow Smedes and restore Kenamun to the throne

Son of Samson is quite an atmospheric peplum with the desolate scenery adding to the feeling of helplessness and oppression the Egyptians feel. You actually feel like you're there - the scenery is quite vivid. Surprisingly, it's a bit bloody and brutal, for its time anyway. It has a good story, however, and the narrative unravels leisurely. Maybe it's a little laborious in pace. But it's intriguing and involving enough.

Mark Forest stars as Samson (or Maciste), a strongman figure with a keen sense of justice, a vast contrast to Chelo Alonso, who plays the evil Queen and steals the scene with her wicked ways. Does she get her just dessert? You'll have to watch to find out!

Chelo, Forest and the Egyptian Kings

[EdgarST · 7/10 · 26 April 2024]

Better than expected wide-screen peplum, with fine exteriors shot in Egypt, and terrific Chelo Alonso as evil queen Smedes, who has time to do an exotic dance that is half belly dancing, half Cuban pelvis shaking, a plus that disappeared in her second foray into a Maciste film (in the land of the cyclops) the following year. Smedes is the treacherous wife of the Egyptian pharaoh, whom she kills according to the designs of Persian invaders, and tries to seduce the handsome Italian-American Mark Forest, in a good version of Maciste, who leads the people in a revolt against the wicked Smedes. As Steve Reeves, Forest also retired soon, investing their money and time on something else: Reeves in a ranch; Forest, teaching operatic singing.

A really fun Italian muscleman period action romp

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 23 March 2009]

Noble and mighty Maciste (a likable performance by brawny hunk Steve Forest) comes to the aid of the oppressed people of the Egyptian city of Tanis, who are suffering greatly under the cruel reign of the beautiful, but ruthless and duplicitous Queen Smedes (superbly played with wicked aplomb by the delectable Chelo Alonso). Director Carlo Campogalliani and screenwriters Oreste Biancoli and Ennio De Concini relate the absorbing story at a constant steady pace and maintain a serious tone throughout. The stirring action scenes are staged with real flair and the moments of violence are surprisingly bloody and brutal. Forest makes for an impressive muscular hero as he either wrestles lions and crocodiles or throws huge boulders as if they were mere pebbles. The stunningly gorgeous Alonso positively burns up the screen with her steamy portrayal of Queen Smedes; the sequence with her performing a sultry belly dance in an attempt to seduce Samson rates as the scorching hot highlight of the whole movie. Moreover, there's solid supporting turns by Angelo Zanolli as the humane and dashing Pharoah Kenamun and Federica Ranchi as sweet, fetching peasant girl Nofret. The major last reel battle delivers the exciting rough'n'ready goods. Carlo Innocenzi's robust, roaring score and Riccardo Pallottini's crisp widescreen scope cinematography are both fine and effective. An immensely enjoyable picture.