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- "It's gotta stop and it's going to stop"
- ―Hamilton Hill referring to the chaos in Gotham[src]
Hamilton Hill was the mayor of Gotham City during The Penguin's reign of terror.
Biography
Though it is unknown how Mayor Hill's ratings fared during his term, the greatest threat to his career came in the form of Max Shreck's proposal to build a power plant supposedly for the purpose of preserving Gotham City's power in the future and avoiding an economic depression. Unknown to Hill was Shreck's secret intention for the power plant to drain Gotham of its electricity and store it, thereby bringing the city under the Shreck family's undisputed control. Hill was strongly against the idea of the power plant in the first place, which made him something of an enemy for Shreck, who hinted at getting Hill recalled, though Hill ignored the "threat". Despite this, Hill's capabilities as Mayor began to be questioned when the disgraced Red Triangle Circus Gang attacked Gotham in an attempt to kidnap Shreck.
Hill promised Gotham that such an attack would never happen again at a press conference, but a Red Triangle member kidnapped Hill's baby son in front of his very eyes and disappeared into the sewer. But the Penguin, until then regarded as a rumour ("The Mysterious Penguin-Man of the Sewer"), "rescued" Hill's baby and won the sympathy of the public, though this had been a ruse on part of both Shreck and the Penguin. Still scheming to rule Gotham, Shreck used the Penguin's newfound popularity to challenge Hill, and had the circus gang attack Gotham again to defame him. Hill tried to persuade Gotham that they had the situation under control, but the death of the Ice Princess apparently at Batman's hands before their very eyes and Batman's apparent rampage throughout the city served as the final straw, and the Penguin would very well have been elected to replace Hill had Batman not uncovered his schemes in time.
Following the Penguin's fall from grace, it is implied that Hill was forgiven and reinstated as Mayor. In a deleted scene, Hill and Commissioner Gordon stood by the Bat-Signal and contemplated recent actions, wondering if Batman would ever forgive Gotham for hunting him like a criminal. But Batman indeed showed up, indicating that he had forgiven the citizenry.
Behind the scenes
Hamilton Hill was portrayed by Michael Murphy. Throughout the film, however, Hill goes unnamed, and is constantly referred to as "the Mayor" or "Mr. Mayor".
In the original script, his name is Roscoe Jenkins.
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