Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108George Hamilton is a perfect villain. How did Mr. California take to Maine? Screenwriter Robert Mrazak, former five- term congressman from Long Island, New York, answers: George Hamilton was a delight to work with both personally and profession- ally, a self-deprecating raconteur with the story telling flair of David Niven. When he arrived in Augusta, Maine, to shoot the “Washington” scenes, I went to meet him at the motel our production coordinator had arranged for him. I was horrified when I got there. While Treat was staying at the Samoset in Rockland, George had been booked into a motel between a dilapidated strip mall and a big-box store. It smelled of disinfectant and was in very poor condition. I expected him to be as appalled as I was. Instead he responded to my apology by saying, “Don’t worry, Bob. I’ve stayed in a lot worse places.” George was brilliant in his scenes, particularly the seduction scene with Ryan Merriman in the Con- gressman’s D.C. office. We ruined several takes because Jared, Treat, and I were laughing so hard. When I expressed my appreciation that he’d come all the way from LA on a coach ticket to shoot his two day’s worth of scenes, he said, “I’ll tell you why I’m here. I’ve had many ups and downs in my career. One of the times it was in the doldrums and I didn’t have anything good in the works, I answered the phone one morning and it was Fred Roos on the line. He said, “Bobby Duvall isn’t going to play Al Pacino’s consi- gliere role in Godfather III. I want you for the part.” in Maine George Hamilton octob e r 2 0 1 6 7 3 Cinema Catatonk Blues LLC TreatWilliams as CharlieWinship and Elizabeth Marvel as Rae Blanchard HasBrianDePalmaseenTheCongressman?Whenyou wereroommatesatColumbia,didthetwoofyouhave anyinklingyoumightbothdirect? We matriculated at Columbia but spent more time at Sarah Lawrence in Bronxville which had a fully outfitted film and theater depart- ment plus female actors hard to come by at Columbia. We made a series of short films. He directed, I acted. My directing came lat- er. We worked with primitive equipment like a crank reel Bolex with a 100-foot maga- zine and reflector boards. From the start Bri- an gathered special talent around him such as Bob DeNiro, Jill Clayburgh and William Finley…Brian saw and liked The Congress- man, thought it was well filmed and solid- ly acted. At that time we were getting a lot of over-the-top advice from folks in Hollywood who wanted to see more explosions and love scenes. Brian advised us to believe in what we’d done, cautioning us that everyone in the business wants to load you down with ideas that never seemed to work for them when they made their films. Words like this from a famous director helped steady the ship at an important time in post-production. n TheCongressmanisavailableforrentinHDfromAmazon Videofor$4.99ortopurchasefor$14.99.TheDVDisavail- ableatBullMoosefor$9.97.