After years of waiting, Cecil B. DeMille's version of Samson and Delilah (1949) has finally been restored and released on DVD. The costumes, scenery, and color cinematography are all glorious. However, Victor Mature as Samson is quite awful; he was never a very good actor, and his wooden demeanor is nowhere more evident than in this film. But the sultry, not slutty, Hedy Lamarr more than makes up for the leading man's inadequacies. Although, the person who truly steals the picture is George Sanders as the coolly evil Saran of Gaza. He even dies with relish when Samson drops the huge statue of the burning Dagon on top of him. He is the perfect representative of the complacent-effect, sick-glamor, and destructive narcissism that has taken over contemporary culture. Samson is the counterpoint: someone who seems incorruptible, falls into sin, then is redeemed by a self-giving sacrifice of obedience to the Will of God. In the middle of it all, is Delilah: the idol of Earthly corruption, sexual-slavery, and greed. She is the outward symbol of beauty, but stings all those who become lax and get too close. Samson is seduced by her false promises of pleasure, and, then, pays dearly. Like our modern porn stars, Delilah is less a real person and more of an image. When we see her at the beginning of the film, she is seated on a stone wall, mischievously throwing fruit at Samson; she is still beautiful, but somehow tomboyish. When she is refashioned by the Saran, she becomes a weapon and deadly tool of her evil masters who cleverly remain in the shadows. At the end, realizing what she has done; the real woman reemerges and is then restored. The movie is a moral-play of the rise and fall, and possible rise again, of all those deceived and forgotten by the power of pornography.