''Samson and the Slave Queen'' () is a 1963 Italian '' peplum'' directed by
Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unre ...
. It was originally made as a
Maciste
Maciste () is one of the oldest recurring characters of film, 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.
He is usually depicted as a ...
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".)
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.
Maciste
Maciste () is one of the oldest recurring characters of film, 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.
He is usually depicted as a ...
(
Samson
SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems) is a computer software platform for molecular design being developed bOneAngstromand previously by the NANO-D group at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science an ...
in the U.S. version)
*
Pierre Brice
Pierre-Louis Le Bris (6 February 1929 – 6 June 2015), known as Pierre Brice, was a French actor, best known as portraying fictional Apache chief Winnetou in German films based on Karl May novels.
Life and films
Brice was born in Brest, ...
as
Zorro
Zorro ( or , Spanish for "fox") is a fictional character created in 1919 by American Pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashin ...
/Ramon (Ramon/El Toro in the U.S. version)
*
Moira Orfei
Moira Orfei (; born Miranda Orfei; 21 December 1931 – 15 November 2015) was an Italian circus performer, actress and television personality of remote Romani origins. Moira was also considered the queen of the Italian circus, one stage name be ...
Andrea Aureli
Andrea Aureli (5 March 1923 – 5 November 2007) was an Italian actor.
Life and career
Born in Terni, Aureli graduated from the Liceo classico in his hometown, then he enrolled the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, graduating i ...
as Rabek
*
Andrea Scotti
Andrea Scotti (27 August 1931 – 21 December 2003) was an Italian film and television actor.
Background
Born in Naples, Scotti attended at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, graduating in 1956. During his career he was mainl ...
as Pedro
*
Aldo Bufi Landi
Aldo Bufi Landi (7 April 1923 – 2 February 2016) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1947 and 2013.
Selected filmography
* ''Malaspina (film), Malaspina'' (1947)
* ''Madunnella'' (1948)
* ''Assunta Spina ...
as Deikor
*
Ignazio Balsamo
Ignazio Balsamo (25 October 1912 – 7 August 1994) was an Italian film and stage actor.
Life and career
Born in Catania, Balsamo began his career on stage, being part of several Sicilian language theatrical companies. Discovered by Pietr ...
as Joaquim
*
Attilio Dottesio
Attilio Dottesio (16 July 1909 – 12 February 1989) was an Italian film character actor and singer. He appeared in 170 films between 1940 and 1985.
Born in Brescia, Dottesio began his career in France, where first he obtained some success ...
as General Saveria
*
Loris Gizzi
Loris Gizzi (16 August 1899 – 6 October 1986) was an Italian actor.
Life and career
Born in Rome, after his university studies Gizzi attended a school of dance and singing. He abandoned the courses when he became an employee of Ferrovie dell ...
as Don Alvarez
*
Nello Pazzafini
Giovanni "Nello" Pazzafini (15 May 1933 – 9 January 1996) was an Italian actor who appeared in a very large number of Peplum film genre, Peplum movies, Spaghetti Westerns and Poliziotteschi.
Life and career
Born in Rome from parents originall ...
as Rabek's Henchman
*
Nazzareno Zamperla
Nazzareno Zamperla (25 April 1937 – 19 March 2020) was an Italian actor and stuntman.
Career
Born in Treviso into a circus family, Zamperla came to Rome in 1949 and worked primarily in the 1950s and 1960s as a stunt performer. His focus was on ...
as Sadoch
Release
''Zorro contro Maciste'' was released in Italy on 23 August 1963. It was released in the United States as ''Samson and the Slave Queen'' as a
double feature
The double feature is a Film, motion picture industry phenomenon in which theaters would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which the presentation of one feature film would be followed by various short subjec ...
Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Angelo Francesco Lavagnino (22 February 1909 – 21 August 1987) was an Italian composer, born in Genoa. He is best known for scoring many films, including '' Legend of the Lost'', '' Conspiracy of Hearts'', '' Gorgo'', '' The Legion's Last Patrol ...
while the American version of the film has a score by
Les Baxter
Leslie Thompson Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American composer, conductor, and musician. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica and s ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' 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". Thompson noted that there was no slave queen promised by the American title of the film. "Robe." of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' 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." 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".
See also
*
List of Italian films of 1963
Following is a sortable list of films produced in Italy in 1963.
See also
*1963 in film
References Footnotes
Sources
*
*
*
*
External linksItalian films of 1963at the Internet Movie Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Films Of 19 ...
TCMDB
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...