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In 2009 I drove out from my home in Virginia Beach, VA to the little mountain town of Bluefield, West Virginia to buy a large vintage adult magazine collection from Larry Buzzo that had been amassed over the years by his deceased father Nicola Buzzo. For more details about my trip to Bluefield click here. It turns out Nicola Buzzo had mostly been a record collector. I’m not a record collector but I had some interest in motion picture soundtrack albums and so I took the opportunity to buy from Larry some of his father’s soundtrack albums that were in a downstairs room. I wish now I had spent more time looking through the elder Buzzo’s records in the upstairs room and two outside storage units but I was too busy rounding up the adult magazines and movie and TV related photos and magazines. I had filled one box with soundtrack albums but after returning home I noticed I had left that box behind. I called Larry and he mailed it to me. When I got the box in the mail I just tucked it away in my storeroom and didn’t open it. So now 11 years later I recently got to wondering exactly what was in that box. I had bought the albums in a hurry and couldn’t remember much about which albums I might have. When I cut open the box a few days ago it was like opening a time capsule from over 50 years ago. Nicola Buzzo had bought the albums new in the 1960s and early 1970s and many of them still were still in the original plastic shrink-wrap and in many cases the shrink-wrap was still sealed. To enhance the feeling of traveling back to the 1960s some of the albums still had the price stickers on them. I figure if you want to collect record albums in pristine condition you can’t do any better than this. I haven’t seen any of the Sophia Loren movies shown in the foreground of the photo above except Boy On A Dolphin co-starring Alan Ladd which I have on Blu-Ray disc. In many magazines over the years I had seen the famous publicity photo of Sophia Loren standing in her sponge diving boat with her sopping wet bathing dress clinging to her and I wondered it that scene was actually in the movie. It was thankfully. Among Nicola Buzzo’s movie photo collection I bought were a few photos of Sophia from that movie and I wish now I hadn’t sold them on ebay.

Miscellaneous The only one of these movies I’ve ever seen is Man Of A Thousand Faces starring James Cagney which I bought on Blu-Ray a few months ago. Cagney stars as the famous silent era movie star Lon Chaney Sr. and shows Cagney made-up as Chaney’s two most famous film characters - the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Phantom of the Opera. The Fastest Guitar Alive jacket is illustrated by the famous fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. I have several Steve McQueen movies on Blu-Ray but not Baby The Rain Must Fall. I wonder if McQueen did his own guitar playing and singing in this movie?

War I really like Richard Burton and to a lesser degree Clint Eastwood but I never owned Where Eagles Dare on laser disc and there is no separate Blu-Ray on it. I saw part of it on TV when I was a kid and it did have lots of violent action. I bought The Young Lions on Blu-Ray a few years ago mostly because I like Montgomery Clift. This war movie is one of those character study types without much action and I’ve only watched it once. There is no lack of good battle action in The Dirty Dozen and I’ve watched it many times over the years on TV, laser disc and Blu-Ray.

Westerns I’ve never seen Guns For San Sebastion. I’ve only seen Run Of The Arrow on regular DVD. I might get it if it comes out on Blu-Ray. I’m not a big fan of “spaghetti Westerns” but the best one is The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and Hang ‘Em High has an interesting cast of American actors so I do have those two on Blu-Ray. I saw the 1966 remake of Stagecoach only on TV when I was a kid and haven’t seen it since. The music was composed by one of the most famous more modern composers - Jerry Goldsmith. As shown on the album jacket it does have an impressive cast of actors. But it doesn’t have the actor that made the 1939 original version the immortal classic that it is - John Wayne.

Science Fiction I wish Mr. Buzzo had more science fiction movie soundtracks but this is all I found. I like Vincent Price but I didn’t buy Master Of The World when it recently came out on Blu-Ray because the movie just isn’t that good, partly because it relies too much on stock footage. I had it on laser disc and when I sold my laser disc collection on ebay 16 years ago this movie brought an astounding $34 possibly because it wasn’t on DVD at the time. This movie’s music composer was Les Baxter noted for doing B movies. His music score for the Steve Reeves’s movie Goliath And The Barbarians was exceptionally powerful and I regret selling my soundtrack of that movie many years ago. I’m a big fan of television fantasy and science fiction anthology shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. One Step Beyond from that same time period is nowhere in their league but it’s still ok. The first season on regular DVD had excellent picture quality but the the remaining seasons that were released later had mediocre picture quality. If I live long enough maybe all the seasons will make it to Blu-Ray one day. I saw the the original five Planet Of The Apes movies in the theater back in the day but the only one I have on Blu-Ray today is the first one. There is a Blu-Ray box set of all the original movies but I don’t like the later movies enough to pay the big box set price.

Secret Agents Who wants to be Dean Martin? I like Dean Martin and even more so Sean Connery as actors but I don’t care about them as their Matt Helm or James Bond characters. I’ve never had any interest in these type of fantasy spy movies. I do like the realistic examples like The Spy Who Came In From The Cold starring Richard Burton. I did see Our Man Flint with James Coburn in the theater in 1966 and thought it was ridiculous. A Man Called Dagger starring Paul Mantee isn’t on my radar screen but Mantee did an ok job as the star of the 1964 science fiction movie Robinson Crusoe On Mars which I have on a Criterion Blu-Ray. One redeeming feature of these silly spy movies is at least their soundtrack album jackets are adorned with sexy women which is always of some interest.

Sexy Women Speaking of interesting sexy women check out this roster: Ann-Margret, Natalie Wood, Carroll Baker, Brigitte Bardot, Rita Hayworth, Virna Lisi, Raquel Welch. I’ve never seen any of these movies except Baby Doll which I got on Blu-Ray a few months ago. The movie wasn’t that good and I don’t plan to watch it again anytime soon. Brigitte Bardot in her 1956 breakthrough movie And God Created Woman might be of interest if it ever comes out on Blu-Ray; but then again it might not be of interest because the soundtrack is in French and I don’t like reading subtitles.

Romance If you take the simple human instinct of sex and sugarcoat it with the more complicated human emotion of love and put that concoction into a movie with an actual plot and professional actors then you have a film genre called a “romantic drama” or “love story.” These movies are all good examples of that genre. God’s Little Acre I have on Blu-Ray. I got it partly because it stars Hollywood veterans Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray. It also has an interesting cast of supporting players who later starred or co-stared in their own television series: Michael Landon, Vic Morrow, Jack Lord, Tina Louise. It also has Fay Spain and Buddy Hackett. That’s a lot of talent. I even read the book one summer at the beach. Raintree County I’ve only had on laser disc. Despite having actors that I like such as Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Lee Marvin it is a really boring movie and I will likely pass on any future Blu-Ray. Peyton Place I have on Blu-Ray. I like it a lot and have watched it several times. When I was a kid in the 1960s visiting my grandmother in Birmingham, Alabama I found a paperback copy of the book laying around. I figured my mother or my aunt must have bought it in the 1950s. In the 1960s staying at my grandmother’s house I remember my grandmother, mother and especially Aunt Betty June glued to the TV set when the TV show was on. About 50 years later I found Peyton Place in a paperback book collection I bought and decided to read it. It was well written and really captures the intrigue and steamy goings-on below the placid surface of small town America. I even read the sequel novel Return To Peyton Place. Band Of Angels I’ve never seen. I like Clark Gable and Yvonne DeCarlo so I might get it if it ever makes it to Blu-Ray. Vertigo is a movie I like a lot mostly because I like Jimmy Stewart. Kim Novak’s not bad either. I’ve had it on laser disc then Blu-Ray and recently got it on the ultimate new format, 4K, in an Alfred Hitchcock box set. Gone With The Wind I saw for the first time I think in the 1970s with my mother and her sister my aunt Betty June in Birmingham, Alabama’s most luxurious theater, “The Alabama.” After the movie I was sitting in the back seat of Mom’s car. Betty June was in the passenger seat. I remember Betty June saying how nice it was to have seen Clark Gable again. In later years I watched GWTW whenever it came on television. I remember reading in TV Guide in the early 1970s that when GWTW had been announced to run on television that all the video stores across the country noticed a big increase in sales of those new fangled VHS and Betamax VCR devices so everybody could tape it. Of course I had the laser disc and currently have the Blu-Ray. I hope I don’t have to wait much longer for the upgrade to 4K. Let’s Make Love I’ve never seen and don’t intend to. I like Marilyn Monroe ok but I’m not a big fan of hers. The only Blu-Ray movies I have with her are movies I got mostly because of the other actors in them: River Of No Return with Robert Mitchum, Niagra with Joseph Cotten, The Misfits with Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. Trapeze I’ve never seen. It stars actors I like such as Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida. But, the previous Blu-Ray releases all had flawed picture quality so I have to keep waiting.

Historical Epics One of my favorite film genres has always been the big budget “historical epic” where the story takes place in the ancient or medieval world. I like looking at the elaborate sets, archaic costumes and battle scenes. If the acting and dialog are good that is so much the better. The Robe I had on laser disc and now have on Blu-Ray. I don’t remember if I saw as it a kid. If I did I probably wouldn’t have liked it much since there is almost no action. In later years I developed a taste for the screen personas of Richard Burton and Michael Rennie so I now like the movie and watch it a few times a year. Its sequel Demetrius And The Gladiators is even better since it still has Michael Rennie and adds one of my favorite actresses, Susan Hayward. Plus it has plenty of gladiatorial battle action. Spartacus is one of the best written and acted of all the epics dealing with the Roman Empire. I’m pretty sure I saw it in the theater when I was a kid. I had it on laser disc of course, then upgraded to a better Criterion laser disc with restored footage and just recently I got in on 4K. As of now in 2021 aside from Spartacus, The Ten Commandments and the modern day Gladiator no other ancient history epics have been released on 4K. Cleopatra I have on Blu-Ray. When this movie was released in 1963 I begged my mother to take me to see it. I (mistakenly) assumed there would be plenty of battle action. Strangely my mother refused which she had never done before. I kept begging and she relented and we went together to see it in downtown Savannah, Georgia. I don’t remember for sure but I bet we saw it at the Lucas Theater which was Savannah’s premier theater in those days. In later years I figured out why Mom had refused to take me at first. She had undoubtably heard about the controversial semi-nude scenes by Elizabeth Taylor and she thought my nine year old brain wasn’t ready to assimilate them. The movie does have some battle scenes but not enough for a nearly four hour movie but I do like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison so I watch the movie every few years. Cleopatra and the 1964 movie The Fall Of The Roman Empire have the most expensive and elaborate sets of all the epic films. The Egyptian I have on Blu-Ray. This is another movie that if I saw it as a kid I wouldn’t have liked it much since it has very little battle action. But it does have the actor Peter Ustinov who always steals any movie scene he is in. I also like Henry Daniell who has a few scenes in the movie. Inexplicably, this movie touches me on some mysterious level and I’m drawn into watching it a few times a year. The Vikings in the early 1960s my bedtime was about 9:00. One night about 10:00 from my bedroom I could hear an exciting movie Dad was watching in the living room. I sneaked out of bed and Dad caught me furtively watching the movie from the hallway. Instead of sending me back to bed he let me watch the rest of the movie with him. I don’t think I had ever seen a movie that had such exciting and realistically staged battle scenes that still came through on the primitive black-and-white TV sets everybody had back then. This movie rarely came on TV again but I did have it on laser disc and now Blu-Ray. I hope I don’t have to wait too long for a 4K version. In 2009 I went to the Chiller Convention in New Jersey partly because actor Tony Curtis was there and I wanted him to sign my soundtrack copy of The Vikings which is newer edition than the copy shown in the photo above. Hercules technically this movie falls into the category of “peplum” or “sword-and-sandal” most of which were made in Italy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These type of movies are not big budget movies with name actors but when you are seven or eight years old they are still enthralling. I saw the first two Hercules movies starring Steve Reeves - this one and the sequel Hercules Unchained in the late 1950s when my family was living in Elizabethtown, Kentucky before moving to Savannah, GA. I was at the right impressionable age so today I still like these type of movies especially if they star Steve Reeves or Gordon Scott. Sadly, the first two Hercules movies which started the peplum genre haven’t made it to Blu-Ray yet and there are no regular DVDs with good picture quality. So, I’m still waiting to be seven years old again back in Elizabethtown with Steve Reeves.

Spartacus interior pages Some more deluxe soundtrack albums in addition to the usual photos and text on the inside gatefold covers also have a few extra pages attached so you get this nice full page color photo of Kirk Douglas with Jean Simmons.	The Vikings inside gatefold The later edition soundtrack album of The Vikings I had signed by Tony Curtis is just a regular album. But the older edition shown above has this eye-catching gatefold illustration of the main actors and a Viking ship.

More Historical Epics Ben-Hur and I go back a long way together. I’m pretty sure I saw it in the theater as a kid. It came on TV from time to time and I always watched it when it did. I remember reading one of the expanded program listings in TV Guide in the 1970s about the famous chariot race costing about $1,000,000. I also remember in the 1970s the talk show host Dick Cavett had a few of his shows devoted to just one celebrity. Charlton Heston was one of them and Heston said that contrary to rumor no stuntmen were killed doing the chariot race but they lost a few horses. Ben-Hur was one of the first laser discs to be letterboxed. Back in the heyday of the laser disc in the 1980s many widescreen movies were still being panned and scanned on laser disc. I have it on Blu-Ray and hoping for a 4K release soon. Solomon And Sheba is a movie that never came on TV anywhere I lived. It was never on laser disc or an official DVD but I knew it about it of course. I wanted to see it because I like the stars Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida and George Sanders. I decided to take a chance on a bootleg DVD copy which as usual turned out to have awful picture quality. I got rid of the bootleg and waited a few more years until a Blu-Ray release finally appeared and thankfully it has wonderful picture quality. The photo above can’t show it but the album jacket cover has a shimmering effect to it, almost like a hologram. I wonder how they did that? King Of Kings is another movie like Solomon And Sheba that slipped through the cracks for most of my life. It never came on TV and was never released on laser disc. It did come out on Blu-Ray with good picture quality several years ago and I bought it. It’s not one of the better epics but I’ve watched it a few times over the last several years partly because I do like Jeffrey Hunter who plays the lead role of Jesus and Robert Ryan who plays John the Baptist. Some of the movie fan magazine reviewers from the early 1960s when the movie was first released were unkind to it: the movie was criticized as being historically inaccurate since it shows some battle scenes between the occupying Romans and Judean rebels that didn’t occur in that exact time period. One reviewer said Jeffrey Hunter shouldn’t have played Jesus since it was impossible that Jesus could have had blue eyes. Another reviewer said that while the movie was being filmed the Hollywood folks making fun of Jeffrey Hunter said the movie advertising tag line should be “I Was A Teenage Jesus.”

Inside the boxes The Ben-Hur and King Of Kings albums were extra deluxe with the 33rpm soundtrack album and a hardcover program book in a box. I dabble in collecting movie program brochures. They are usually magazine format with stapled spines that were sold in the lobby of the theaters showing the movies. I knew that a few epic movies had these nice hardcover book formats instead of the usual magazine style format. But I didn’t know until I opened these boxes that these hardcover program books were included in the box. And of course since these books have been in these boxes for the past 50 years instead of rotting away in a used bookstore they are in pristine condition, just the way I like them. Thanks for saving them for me Mr. Buzzo!