Samson
1936 Drama
Credits
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Summary
Wealth is not enough for financier Jacques Brachart. With his
immense fortune, he intends to buy his way into high society to show
the world what a great man he is. He chooses as his wife
Anne-Marie d’Andeline, who, coming from an impoverished aristocratic
family, can hardly refuse his offer of marriage. He marries for
status, she marries for money, and neither loves the other.
Predictably, Anne-Marie takes a lover, Jérôme Le Govain, a
playboy who owes his wealth to Brachart. When Brachart hears of
his wife’s infidelity, he is furious and embarks on a terrible
revenge, at the risk of ruining himself...
Review
Whilst not among Maurice Tourneur’s best work, Samson is a powerful indictment of
the moral failings of France’s higher bourgeoisie in the early
1930s. The sins of excessive greed, debauched hedonism and
marital infidelity were highly topical and featured in many films of
the era, most successfully in Marcel L’Herbier’s L’Argent
(1929). This film was adapted from a stage play by the playwright
Henri Bernstein and stars two of the biggest actors in French
cinema at the time – Harry Baur and Gaby Morlay.
Today, the film looks like a somewhat dated melodrama and its moralising painfully
unsubtle, but Baur’s performance, skilfully combining villainy and
pathos, lends it a dramatic intensity and poignancy which makes it hard
not to sympathise with the tragic plight of his character.
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