Samson and the Slave Queen

Last updated
Samson and the Slave Queen
Zorro-contro-maciste.jpg
Directed by Umberto Lenzi
Screenplay by
Produced by Fortunato Misiano [1]
Starring Pierre Brice
Alan Steel
Cinematography Augusto Tiezzi [2]
Edited byJolanda Benvenuti [1]
Music by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Production
company
Romana Film [3]
Distributed by American International Pictures (US)
Release date
  • 23 August 1963 (1963-08-23)(Italy)
Running time
90 minutes [1]
CountryItaly [3]
LanguagesEnglish
Italian

Samson and the Slave Queen (Italian : Zorro contro Maciste) is a 1963 Italian peplum directed by Umberto Lenzi. [4] [5] It was originally made as a Maciste film in Italy, in which the fabled strongman meets Zorro. It was redubbed into a "Samson" movie for distribution in the U.S. and "Samson" meets "El Toro" (instead of "El Zorro".)

Contents

Plot

The king of Nogara dies, leaving behind a will naming one of his nieces as his successor. Will it be blonde and virtuous Isabella or evil, dark-haired Malva? Each woman relies on a hero to locate the will. Malva hires the bare-chested strongman Samson while Isabella relies on the masked El Toro (a.k.a. Zorro) even though her heart belongs to the mild-mannered poet, Ramon. Malva's ruthless desire for the throne soon alienates Samson and he and El Toro then team up to bring about a proper resolution to the Nogara succession. Meanwhile, Isabella learns El Toto's true identity, an identity which both surprises and pleases her.

Cast

Release

Zorro contro Maciste was released in Italy on 23 August 1963. [1] It was released in the United States as Samson and the Slave Queen as a double feature with Goliath and the Sins of Babylon on December 13, 1963. [1] It opened in New York on 4 March 1964. [2]

The Italian version's music is composed by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino while the American version of the film has a score by Les Baxter. [1]

Reception

From contemporary reviews, Howard Thompson of The New York Times reviewed the film under the title of Samson and the Slave Queen, describing the film as an "old-fashioned, prettily colored and costumed and pleasingly mounted dud". [6] Thompson noted that there was no slave queen promised by the American title of the film. [6] "Robe." of Variety declared the film to have "enough vim and vigor, thanks to a spirited performance by Pierre Brice as Zorro, to please the less-demanding beefcake-and-biceps aficionados." [7] The rest of the review found that Lenzi focused on keeping the cast moving with emphasis on the fighting, and that the rest of the cast outside Brice was "only adequate". [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maciste</span>

Maciste is one of the oldest recurring characters of cinema, created by Gabriele d'Annunzio and Giovanni Pastrone. He is featured throughout the history of the cinema of Italy from the 1910s to the mid-1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sword-and-sandal</span> Genre of largely Italian-made historical or biblical epics

Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum, is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Samson and Delilah (1949), Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and Cleopatra (1963). These films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by spaghetti Western and Eurospy films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Brice</span> French actor

Pierre-Louis Le Bris, known as Pierre Brice, was a French actor, best known as portraying fictional Apache-chief Winnetou in German films based on Karl May novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umberto Lenzi</span> Italian director and writer (1931–2017)

Umberto Lenzi was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.

<i>Colossus and the Headhunters</i> 1963 film

Colossus and the Headhunters, is a 1963 Italian peplum film written and directed by Guido Malatesta, and starring Kirk Morris.

<i>Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules</i> 1962 film

Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules is a 1962 film directed by Guido Malatesta that was filmed in Yugoslavia and Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umberto Lenzi filmography</span>

Umberto Lenzi was an Italian film director whose filmography encompassed a ranges of genres across a prolific career. Born in Massa Marittima, Tuscany, Lenzi studied law before enrolling at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. As part of his studies, he wrote and directed the short film Ragazzi di Trastevere, based on Pier Paolo Pasolini's novel Ragazzi di vita. During this time, he worked as a film critic for the Centro's journal Bianco e Nero, and was an avid follower of both European and American films, favouring the work of directors John Ford, Raoul Walsh, and Michael Curtiz.

<i>Goliath and the Vampires</i> 1961 film

Goliath and the Vampires is a 1961 Italian peplum film directed by Sergio Corbucci and Giacomo Gentilomo.

<i>Maciste in King Solomons Mines</i> 1964 film

Samson in King Solomon's Mines is a 1964 Italian peplum film written and directed by Piero Regnoli.

<i>Goliath and the Rebel Slave</i> 1963 film

Goliath and the Rebel Slave, also known as The Tyrant of Lydia Against the Son of Hercules, is a 1963 Eastmancolor adventure peplum film directed by Mario Caiano.

<i>Hercules Against the Barbarians</i> 1964 film

Hercules Against the Barbarians is a 1964 Italian peplum film directed by Domenico Paolella.

<i>Goliath Against the Giants</i> 1961 film

Goliath Against the Giants is a 1961 Italian film directed by Guido Malatesta. It was Brad Harris's debut as a lead actor.

<i>Hercules Against the Mongols</i> 1963 film

Hercules Against the Mongols is a 1963 Italian peplum film directed by Domenico Paolella.

<i>The Invincible Masked Rider</i> 1963 film

The Invincible Masked Rider is a 1963 adventure film directed by Umberto Lenzi. It was based on a novel by Johnston McCulley. The film was released in the US as Terror of the Black Mask.

<i>Samson and the Sea Beast</i> 1963 film

Samson and the Sea Beast is a 1963 Italian peplum film directed by Tanio Boccia.

<i>The Terror of Rome Against the Son of Hercules</i> 1964 film

The Terror of Rome Against the Son of Hercules is a 1964 peplum film directed by Mario Caiano and starring Mark Forest and Marilù Tolo.

<i>The Avenger, Zorro</i> 1972 film

The Avenger, Zorro is a 1972 Spanish-Italian Western film written and directed by Rafael Romero Marchent.

<i>The Invincible Brothers Maciste</i> 1964 film

The Invincible Brothers Maciste is a 1964 Italian peplum film written and directed by Roberto Mauri.

<i>Hercules vs. Moloch</i> 1963 film

Hercules vs. Moloch is a 1963 Italian/French international co-production peplum film written and directed by Giorgio Ferroni and starring Gordon Scott. The film reuses battle scenes from Ferroni's 1961 film The Trojan Horse.

<i>Hercules and the Masked Rider</i> 1963 film

Hercules and the Masked Rider is a 1963 Italian peplum film written and directed by Piero Pierotti and starring Alan Steel and Mimmo Palmara. A crossover film, it is set in the seventeenth century Spain and it features Hercules in a Zorro-like scenario.

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kinnard & Crnkovich 2017, p. 145.
  2. 1 2 "Samson and the Slave Queen". American Film Institute . Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Kinnard & Crnkovich 2017, p. 146.
  4. ↑ Roberto Chiti; Roberto Poppi; Enrico Lancia; Mario Pecorari (1991). Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film. Gremese Editore, 1992. ISBN   8876055932.
  5. ↑ Marco Giusti (2007). Dizionario del western all'italiana. Mondadori, 2007. ISBN   978-8804572770.
  6. 1 2 Thompson, Howard (March 5, 1964). "Goliath and Samson". New York Times . Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  7. 1 2 Variety's Film Reviews 1964-1967. Vol. 11. R. R. Bowker. 1983. There are no page numbers in this book. This entry is found under the header "September 9, 1964". ISBN   0-8352-2790-1.

Sources

  • Kinnard, Roy; Crnkovich, Tony (2017). Italian Sword and Sandal Films, 1908-1990. McFarland. ISBN   978-1476662916.


Italy film clapperboard.svg

This article related to an Italian film of the 1960s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.