NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (October 2022): Kino have transferred Riccardo Freda's Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World to Blu-ray. It includes both the International 98-minute cut and the 76-minute AIP US cut sharing one dual-layered Blu-ray disc. The image quality is quite weak - notably on inclusions made in the AIP cut (check the above title.) Other than those the quality is quite similar - faded and a bit hazy with modest bitrates - certainly not reaching the height of the format. We presume it to be fault of the compromised source(s) that have occasional frame-specific damage marks (see sample below.)

NOTE: We have added 50 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono tracks (24-bit) in the, oft-DUB'ed, English language for both versions. Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World has sword-sandal style aggression with conflicts centering on the protagonist's remarkable strength besting villainous opponents in chariots and animals (a tiger!) It come through authentically flat and fairly meek with modest depth exported. The International version score was by Carlo Innocenzi (Son of Samson, Mill of the Stone Women.) He did many comparable Italian genre films including Caesar Against the Pirates, The Vengeance of Ursus and Atlas Against the Cyclops.) Incidentally, the US version utilizes the Innocenzi score (Tim tells us in the commentary - that cues were made more bold) but is credited to Les Baxter (Erik the Conqueror, Tower of London, X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, Panic in the Year Zero, and the US versions of Baron Blood, The Beast Within) partially taken from the US versions of Goliath and the Barbarians and Marco Polo. It sounds occasionally scattered and rough in the lossless transfer - although without egregious, distracting, flaws. Kino offer optional English subtitles, for both cuts, on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new commentary on the AIP cut by novelist and critic Tim Lucas. He is probably my favorite commentarist and we are all thinking of him during this sad time in his life. We wish you resilience and support, my friend. In the commentary he differentiates the two cuts with specific detail (narration, missing scenes, score etc.), as usual, digging very deep. He cites comments made to him by producer Samuel Z. Arkoff - founder of American Releasing Corporation, which later became known as American International Pictures. Even though I couldn't find much of the same appeal in Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World with many films circling this genre, Tim helped garner appreciation that was absent before listening. I always enjoy his thoughts and observations. There are also trailer, but none for Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World. There is a slipcase and reversible cover art (see below.)  

Riccardo Freda's Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World has only minor peplum genre appeal, imo. While the less-effective transfers marginalize the value, the inclusion of both cuts - even as a curiously - and the Tim Lucas commentary give the Kino Blu-ray value. The film was riding the wave of Hercules movies with a muscular hero performing fantastic, and noble, physical feats of strength. Personally, I would put these two film versions in the lower tier of similar discs I've reviewed like The Revolt of the Slaves, Hercules and the Captive Women, Son of Samson, Messalina, Sergio Leone's The Colossus of Rhodes, Mario Camerini's Ulysses, and Mario Bava's Hercules in the Haunted World and Erik the Conqueror all on Blu-ray. Completists will want Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World and the commentary is worth the price alone - just keep expectations on the film in the modest range.

Gary Tooze