Known in Italy as Maciste Nella Valle Dei Re, but in the USA as Son of Samson and Maciste in the Valley of the Kings, this is one of many sword and sandal films that dominated Italian cinema during the sixties. There were many films with Hercules, Samson, Maciste, Goliath among others that had beefcake actors playing these roles which made their way from Italy to America with different movie titles. At times the movie title character was not the same person in the movie! That was the case with Son of Samson, in which the actual main character in the movie is Maciste! In fact, there was no relation between Samson and Maciste!

In Son of Samson, which takes place when Persians ruled over Maciste (Mark Forest, Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules, Goliath and the Dragon) travels to the city of Tanis where the evil Queen Smedes (femme fatale actress Chelo Alonso, Sheba and the Gladiator, Goliath and the Barbarians) rules spreading her evil across the land mistreating her people as they are slaves! The queen and her minions are making the slaves lives miserable without food or drink while working. While in Tanis, Maciste meets Nofret (Federica Ranchi, Goliath and the Dragon) who is in love with Kenamon(Angelo Zanolli). They had planned to marry but Smedes has drugged Kenamon, and he only has eyes for the queen. Nofret is one of the slaves that is to be sold by Smedes, and it’s up to Maciste to save her and the other slaves. Maciste basically becomes the leader of the slaves revolt and plots to free them all from the sinister queen and end her tyrannical reign of terror once and for all!

Director Carlo Campogalliani has done a fantastic job at the helm of this classic and stands out with one of the better peplum films from the era with a comprehensive, literate story to work with. The film has a lot of great action pieces including a bloody climax along with Maciste battling (obviously fake) crocodiles and lions. The cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini is ravishing capturing some excellent panoramic Egyptian locations

Son of Samson debuts on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber and I have to say, I am really impressed with the picture quality of this release. I expected something gritty and being just average. But it’s way above average and looks fantastic. The colors are rich with blue skies, outfits the characters wear, and plenty of depth when it comes to details and textures to the scenery. Flesh tones look accurate. The opening scenes have a slight green hue but nothing too distracting. No DNR appears to have been applied and the film has no speckles or much in the other age-old anomalies. It is a nice clean image!

For the audio, the DTS Master Audio 2.0 track comes in perfectly clear with dialogue, the great music by Carlo Innocenzi and action sounds all being crisp and not overly aggressive. Kino’s Blu-ray only provides the English dubbed version. English subtitles are available.

Film Historian David Del Valle and Filmmaker/Historian Michael Varrati provide another stellar commentary track for this release as the one major extra.

Trailers for Revolt of the Slaves, Jack the Giant Killer, The Magic Sword, Arabian Adventure, Sinbad of the Seven Seas, and a Kino Cult promo are the remaining extras.

Kudos to Kino for releasing another film in the sword and sandal genre, and there is at least one more coming up in the not-too-distant future!

Son of Samson

Director- Carlo Campogalliani

Cast- Mark Forest, Vira Silenti, Chelo Alonso

Country of Origin- Italy

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –6/11/22