''Samson and His Mighty Challenge'' is a 1964 Italian sword-and-sandal film, released in 1965 at the very tail end of the peplum craze. Its original title was ''Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili'' (''

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

Maciste 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. He is usually depicted as a Hercu ...

, and

Ursus Ursus is Latin for bear. It may also refer to: Animals * ''Ursus'' (mammal), a genus of bears People * Ursus of Aosta, 6th-century evangelist * Ursus of Auxerre, 6th-century bishop * Ursus of Solothurn, 3rd-century martyr * Ursus (''praefectus ...

: the Invincibles''). It is also known as ''Samson and the Mighty Challenge'', ''Combate dei Gigantes'' (''Battle of the Giants''), ''Triumph of the Giants'' or ''Le Grand Defi'' (''The Great Battle'').

Synopsis

Hercules argues with his father

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

who thinks that his son should follow the road of virtue. Instead, Hercules follows the road of pleasure which leads him to the city of

Lydia Lydia (Lydian language, Lydian: ‎𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the mod ...

. There he falls in love with the princess

Omphale In Greek mythology, Omphale (; Ancient Greek: Ὀμφάλη) was queen of the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor. Diodorus Siculus provides the first appearance of the Omphale theme in literature, though Aeschylus was aware of the episode. The Gree ...

and he asks from her mother

Nemea Nemea (; grc, Νεμέα; grc-x-ionic, Νεμέη) is an ancient site in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese, in Greece. Formerly part of the territory of Cleonae in ancient Argolis, it is today situated in the regional unit of Corinthia ...

permission to marry her. Although Nemea is thrilled with the idea of having a

demigod A demigod or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" ( spiritual enlightenment). A ...

as a husband for her daughter, Omphale doesn't even want to hear about it because she is in love with Inor the

barbarian A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...

prince. So the couple crafts a cunning plan. They hide their dwarf friend under the statue of Zeus and he tells Hercules that in order to marry Omphale he must battle with the most powerful man in the world: Samson. Hercules agrees and the queen sends a messenger to tell Samson about the fight. Samson agrees, although his wife

Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ar, دليلة, Dalīlah; grc, label=Greek, Δαλιδά, Dalidá) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved b ...

thinks that it is not a good idea because her husband has a taste for beautiful women. So Delilah cuts his hair and makes him weak. However, the messenger does not know this, and he thinks that his wife doesn't let him go. In order to return to Lydia with Samson, he hires the troublemaker Ursus who recently lost a fight to Maciste to kidnap him.

Cast

Alan Steel Sergio Ciani (7 September 1931 – 5 September 2015), best known as Alan Steel, was an Italian bodybuilder and actor. Born in Rome, Ciani started his career as a stuntman; then he became the body double for Steve Reeves in ''Hercules Unchained'' ...

as ''Hercules'' * Howard Ross as ''Maciste'' * Nadir Moretti (credited as Nadir Baltimore) as ''Samson'' * Yann L'Arvor as ''Ursus '' *

Luciano Marin Luciano Marin (9 December 1931 – 12 November 2019) was an Italian actor. He appeared in more than twenty films since 1957. Filmography References External links * 1931 births 2019 deaths Italian male film actors {{Italy-f ...

as ''Inor'' *

Hélène Chanel Hélène Chanel (born Hélène Stoliaroff; 12 June 1941 in Deauville, Calvados, France) is a French actress of Russian heritage. She was active in the 1960s in a variety of European international co-productions of sword and sandal, Eurospy and ...

as ''Onphale'' *

Elisa Montés Elisa Rosario Ruiz Penella (born 15 December 1934, in Granada), known as Elisa Montés, is a Spanish actress who took her pseudonym from the celebrated work of her grandfather, Manuel Penella, '' El gato montés''. Montés is the sister of act ...

as ''Onfale'' * Lia Zoppelli as ''Nemea '' *

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 bei ...

as ''Delilah'' *

Maria Luisa Ponte Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

as ''Ursus' mother'' *

Conrado San Martín Conrado San Martín Prieto (20 February 1921 – 24 April 2019) was a Spanish actor with a long and prolific career. He made his film debut in 1941 and was particularly popular during the 1950s. Life Conrado San Martín left behind a career as ...

as ''Marinero '' *

Livio Lorenzon Livio Lorenzon (6 May 1923 – 23 December 1971) was an Italian actor who was mainly active during the 1950s and 1960s. Biography He played minor roles in some memorable commedia all'Italiana movies directed by the likes of Dino Risi and Ma ...

Carlo Tamberlani Carlo Tamberlani (11 March 1899 – 5 August 1980) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 127 films between 1931 and 1976. He was born in Salice Salentino, Italy and died in Subiaco, Italy. His brother Nando Tamberlani was also an actor. ...

Reinterpretation

In 1993 this film was re-released as a comedy under the name ''

Hercules Returns ''Hercules Returns'' is a 1993 Australian comedy film directed by David Parker, starring David Argue, Michael Carman, Bruce Spence and Mary Coustas. The film has a cult following in Australia and other countries. It has been released in DVD fo ...

''. The original dialogue was overdubbed by Australian actors and a number of extra scenes were filmed.Hughes, p.25

Bibliography

References

External links

*
''Samson and His Mighty Challenge''
at

Variety Distribution Variety Distribution is an Italian-based film distribution company. It distributes Italian films worldwide, produced from the 1930s onward. History Variety Distribution (formerly Variety Film and Variety Communications) has been in the film ...

* (1993 remake) 1964 films 1960s fantasy adventure films Peplum films Italian fantasy adventure films 1960s Italian-language films Films directed by Giorgio Capitani Films scored by Piero Umiliani Italian crossover films Maciste films Sword and sandal films 1960s Italian films {{fantasy-film-stub