“Back in the 1960′s, when there were only 6 TV channels in New York City and content was very expensive,” explained Ira Riklis in a recent interview, “WOR channel 9 would buy the right to show a movie for a week.  During that week, WOR would show the same movie everyday at 8:00 AM, Noon, 4:00 PM, 8:00 PM and Midnight.  At the conclusion of every showing the announcer would say, ‘If you missed any portion of our show or wish to see it again, it will be on at …’ The week that WOR was showing Captain Horatio Hornblower I was home sick all week.  I must have seen the movie 15 to 20 times that week.”

“Since that time I have gathered copies of all the books and read each book twice.  The first time I read them as I found them.  The second time I lined them all up in logical order and reread them.  I say logical order because the books were not written in a chronological order.”

Ira Riklis continued, “What attracted me to the movie was the character of Hornblower, faithfully rendered from the novels into the 1951 movie starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo. In spite of Hornblower’s skill and judgment, he is constantly racked by insecurity.  Rather than the swagger that was portrayed in the A&E miniseries in 1998, Peck recognized that no one was more surprised by his successes than Hornblower himself.”

“His humanity made him tremendously appealing,” concluded Ira Riklis.