October 31, 1949 –
Cecil B. DeMille’s wonderfully campy (although not intentional) version of Samson and Delilah, starring Hedy LaMarr and Victor Mature opened on this date.
For the scene in which Samson kills the lion, Victor Mature refused to wrestle a tame movie lion. Told by Producer and Director Cecil B. DeMille that the lion had no teeth, Mature replied, “I don’t want to be gummed to death, either.” The scene shows a stuntman wrestling the tame lion, intercut with close-ups of Mature wrestling a lion skin.
