AN Idea I Had - Last Days of the REICH

1. EXT. TRAIN STATION, MUNDT, SWISS ALPS, DAY, 1969.
We see a busy snow-capped period TRAIN STATION. A diesel locomotive comes up a steep hill, all dirtied with soot and steam. Out walks an attractive, mini-skirted young woman of 33, FREDA TRAUSTEINER, dark-haired, attractive, wide-eyed yet world-weary, in a big coat. She walks out, and looks around.
2. EXT. MUNDT VILLAGE, SWISS ALPS, DAY, 1969.
CUT - We see FREDA TRAUSTEINER, walking up a hill from the TRAIN STATION to the less snowy VILLAGE. It is small and serene, with a lawn of ice-frosted green grass forming a village green. She approaches a small LOCAL SHOP/POST OFFICE, and as she does, she takes out of her coat pocket an old photograph.
CLOSE-UP - On the dirt-covered, faded sepia photograph, stained with tea - a portrait of MANFRED VON HISTER, middle-aged, fifty-ish, short, balding, moustachioed, dressed in full Gestapo uniform, pince-nez glasses balanced upon nose.
CUT - FREDA TRAUSTEINER breathes, and puts the photograph back into her coat pocket. She enters the POST OFFICE.
3. INT. POST OFFICE, MUNDT, SWISS ALPS, DAY, 1969.
CUT - Inside the cramped POST OFFICE, we see shelves of German food, cereal packets at the back, milk bottles and rows of sausages hung on hooks at the front, facing the windows. In the left corner is the cubicle for the POSTMASTER. Out of the cubicle door rises ALBERT GEARSON, a fat, middle-aged man, huge lips, large nose, balding, unattractive, like a toad bulging out of his worn blue POSTMASTER's uniform.
ALBERT GEARSON (thick accent)
Yes, madame, may I help you?
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (well-spoken, almost but not quite British)
Yes, are you Albert Gearson?
ALBERT GEARSON (stiff)
Yes, but the T is silent. Why are you here, Miss...
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (polite)
Trausteiner, Freda Trausteiner, I'm here for a reason.
ALBERT GEARSON (cleaning up the shop)
And what would that be?
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (strong)
Did you serve with my father?
ALBERT GEARSON (shakes head, nervous)
There were no Trausteiners in my regiment of the Swiss Army, madame.
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (raises an eyebrow)
Really? My father was Colonel Eduard Trausteiner of the Luftwaffe.
ALBERT GEARSON (pleading)
But I am Swiss not German!
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (stern)
Though born here, you were raised in Munich, were you not?
ALBERT GEARSON (stammering)
Yeh, yes, yes, I was. I'll admit it. Yes, I did know your father. I was in the Luftwaffe, but I was conscripted. I was a pilot beforehand, and I had to be cajoled.
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (hands ALBERT GEARSON photograph)
I understand. You recognize this man?
ALBERT GEARSON (looks down)
Ah yes, Sturmbannfuhrer Manfred Von Hister of the Gestapo.
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (sad)
The man who killed my father.
ALBERT GEARSON (wistful)
Oh, yes, why was that again?
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (determined)
For being a traitor and working for the French Resistance. He had been ordered by the Gestapo to bomb a French village, refused and deserted. They found him in Belgium, and shot him.
ALBERT GEARSON (squints)
Yes, why did you need me?
FREDA TRAUSTEINER ()
Where is Von Hister?
ALBERT GEARSON (laughing)
Sure, he is dead, shot by a firing squad after the war, in France.
FREDA TRAUSTEINER (suspicious)
Really? I heard that he was around in the 1950s.
ALBERT GEARSON (laughs FREDA off)
No, sure, he was executed. Of course, no records exist, due to clause of anonymous identity.
FREDA pushes ALBERT GEARSON against the back of the wall.
ALBERT GEARSON (terrified)
All right, he is alive, as far as I know. We last met in 1954 in a bar in Zurich. He's probably in East Germany. That's where he was headed.
FREDA (nodding, polite)
Thank you.
FREDA walks off, leaving the POST OFFICE.
4. INT. POST OFFICE, MUNDT, SWISS ALPS, DAY, 1969.
CUT - A SUBTITLE appears, "A WEEK LATER", and we see ALBERT GEARSON manning the empty POST OFFICE. Suddenly, a man in black overalls, handsome, longish hair, about thirty, HESSEN walks in.
ALBERT GEARSON (surprised)
What do you want, sir?
HESSEN (cold, German, emotionless)
I'm from the Post Office Administration.
ALBERT GEARSON (lights up)
Oh yes, what is it?
HESSEN (smooth-talking)
I need your signature, to re-authenticate this premise's license.
HESSEN places a contract and ALBERT GEARSON gamely signs there.
ALBERT GEARSON (somewhat dismissive)
Thanks, you may leave. Goodbye.
HESSEN shrugs and walks off.
5. EXT. MUNDT VILLAGE, SWISS ALPS, DAY, 1969.
CUT - HESSEN walks out of the POST OFFICE. He looks shifty, and turns around. At the edge of the road, we see a row of black-suited, blond ARYAN YOUTH in mod fashion, both MALE and FEMALE with Tommy Guns. They fire at HESSEN, who drops dead in a bloody mess. HESSEN walks over towards the corpse and places his finger in the pool of blood, rears his finger up to his mouth and licks the finger off.
6. EXT. NEWS KIOSK, RIVER SEINE, PARIS, FRANCE, DAY, 1969.
CUT - We see a NEWSPAPER SALESMAN, French, moustachioed, wearing a beret, screaming in French, outside his Riverside KIOSK.
NEWSPAPER SALESMAN (loud, SUBTITLES shown)
Pour tout savoir sur elle, lire tout ça, ancien nazi retrouvé mort d'une blessure par balle en Suisse. Assassiner suspect.
(SUBTITLES - Read all about it, read all about it, ex-Nazi found dead of gunshot wound in Switzerland. Suspected murder)
FREDA passes by and looks crestfallen as she sees a picture of the bloodied corpse of ALBERT GEARSON on the cover of a FRENCH NEWSPAPER. Her expression swiftly turns to a look of suspicion. She gives the NEWSPAPER SALESMAN some money and buys a NEWSPAPER. She rushes off.
FREDA (quick)
Keep the change!
NEWSPAPER SALESMAN (surprised)
Oui?
FREDA runs off into the crowd.
7. EXT. TOWER BLOCK, PARIS BOULEVARD, FRANCE, DAY, 1969.
CUT - Opposite a quiet, leafy PARK, we see a 19TH CENTURY TOWER BLOCK with an ornate roof. FREDA walks by. She looks hidden, as if she is trying to keep a secret. We see following her, a chain-smoking, grey, wrinkled man in a trench-coat and fedora hat, mid-forties, but looks older. This is BLAYDEN. FREDA walks quicker as she nears the door of the TOWER BLOCK.
8. INT. STAIRCASE/CORRIDOR, TOWER BLOCK, DAY, 1969.
CUT - FREDA looks frightened, as she walks up the metal staircase to the ornate gold ART DECO CORRIDOR. She opens the wooden door to her flat. As she enters and closes the door, we see BLAYDEN standing in the CORRIDOR.
9. INT. FREDA'S FLAT, TOWER BLOCK, DAY, 1969.
CUT - FREDA enters her FLAT. It is initially dark. She turns on the light. It brightens up to reveal typical 1960s decor, a glass coffee table, a ball-chair facing a bakelite television, a CHINESE GIRL painting hanging on the floral-stencilled wall. There is probably a lava lamp somewhere too.
FREDA (screeching through the door's letterbox)
I did not kill him. I was already in Paris.
BLAYDEN (looking through letterbox, posh English)
I know you didn't. We need your help.
FREDA opens the door. BLAYDEN straggles in.
FREDA (confused)
Who are you?
BLAYDEN (tough)
Blayden, British Intelligence, MI6. We understand that you may be looking for Manfred Von Hister.
FREDA (nods)
Yes, he killed my father for treason.
BLAYDEN (slightly gruff)
Yes, Miss Trausteiner, we are aware of the details of the death of your father, Colonel Trausteiner.
FREDA (nods)
Yes, are you also looking for Von Hister?
BLAYDEN (nods)
Well, yes, we believe he is involved in a conspiracy. In South America, not East Germany, as first thought.
FREDA (nods)
Yes, that's what I heard. Gearson, before his death said that Von Hister was in East Germany.
Begins in 1969. In Switzerland, a young woman, FREDA TRAUSTEINER age 33, dark-haired, attractive arrives in the small Alpine town of Mundt by train. She is holding a weathered, black and white photograph dated 1944 of a balding, moustachioed man not unlike MICHAEL SHEARD, in his late forties, early fifties, dressed in full Nazi uniform. She gets off the snow-coated station and arrives in the town bank and orders to meet the manager, ALBERT GEARSON. GEARSON, a rattish, snivelly, rather fussy, staid man does not recognize FREDA. She hands him the  photo. She tells him that she is the daughter of one COLONEL EDUARD TRAUSTEINER of the Luftwaffe. GEARSON admits he was never in the German army, as he was born in Switzerland, and has lived there all his life. FREDA adds that although born Swiss, GEARSON was raised in MUNICH and served in the Hitler Youth. GEARSON admits the truth. FREDA tells him that she needs his help to track down the man in the photograph, MANFRED VON HISTER,  Sturmbannführer of the Gestapo, who killed TRAUSTEINER when discovering he was a traitor, secretly helping the French Resistance. GEARSON tells FREDA that VON HISTER died, shot by a  firing squad in Vienna in 1946. However, no records exist of his execution. FREDA does not believe him, and attempts to torture the secrets out of him. He relents, and tells her that VON HISTER is alive, but that they last met in 1954. It is likely that he is in East Germany. FREDA leaves.
A week later, GEARSON is killed by a garotte fired from a tram-line. FREDA is met near her flat in PARIS by EDWARD BLAYDEN, mid-40s, chain-smoking, ageing, dirty,  a WW2 vet and member of British Intelligence.He is a bit of a bruiser, uncompromising. He doesn't abuse her, because he doesn't hit women, but he's very prickly. She wants to find VON HISTER, while BLAYDEN has been sent to find GEARSON's killer. BLAYDEN agrees to help FREDA.
Max Miller Richardson/Gielgud/Carry On SCreaming Forsyth/Zucco/Nigel Bruce/Wilcoxon/
TUnnel C Aubrey/Jimmy Hanley/Huston/Arliss/Basil Sydney/Sidomak/dix/leslie banks/hoey
AUTONS DINNY POWELL DAKTARI - CLARENCE THE LION/UNCLE/SINGING NUN
In Paraguay, the Canadian Embassy, a fallen-apart old pile of a hacienda, inner-city, we see various businessmen. We see an elderly man in pince-nez glasses, white linen suit and panama hat, carrying a cane checking his watch, "RENÉ KOHLER", a French-Canadian . The Canadian Ambassador to Paraguay, WARREN RICHARDS, grey-haired, stentorian, authoritative goes up on a pedestal and speaks. In the crowd, there is a young woman, dressed in black funeral dress, pale, young, dark-haired. She grabs a rifle, disguises it as a telescope and shoots it, seemingly missing the Ambassador but hitting one of his advisers, identified as CURTIS ROSS, 50s, grey-haired, moustachioed. "She" leaves, and blends into the audience, revealed to be a boy, CARL VAN EYCK. He rips off his dress to reveal shorts and a vest and removes his wig. He returns to the British Consul's office, down an old lane. The consul, "L" is a wheelchair-bound old man, and he isn't totally wheelchair-bound. He is actually SIR DERRICK LAWRENCE, a World War Two spy and decorated war hero. CARL tells that he shot one of the Canadian embassy aides deliberately. "ROSS", as "L" determines is actually a Nazi, HEINRICH VALIS, one of several members of VON HISTER's private army. "L" rings BLAYDEN and tells him that they have found VON HISTER.
FREDA flies into PARAGUAY and at the airport, meets "MAX REYNOLDS", a tall, lean, balding man with a protruding nose. He claims to be working for "L", as a chauffeur. However, he drives her to a strip club. It turns out that REYNOLDS is a Nazi. "L" arrives and identifies "REYNOLDS" as a member of the Death's Head Regiment, REINHARDT MEISNER. "L" claims to be "GOTTFRIED HAWK", an ex-guard at DACHAU. MEISNER initially believes him, but tries to shoot him. MEISNER admits that "RENÉ KOHLER" is VON HISTER, and has a heart attack suddenly and dies. CARL VAN EYCK arrives to help. He reveals that his mother was in the BELGIAN RESISTANCE and his father is a television journalist for BRT. They return to "L"'s house. FREDA decides to go to the Canadian Embassy, only to find that it has been mysteriously fire-bombed. There is no sign of VON HISTER. They go to the airport, but have missed the flight.
In December 1971, VON HISTER is missing. A death record marked "RENÉ KOHLER" is located in MONTREAL, but is of a different man whose identity he stole. "L" comes into contact with an elderly Jewish Nazi hunter EZRA YAKOV. YAKOV has come into contact with the widows of over seventeen former Nazis, their husbands all having died in accidents or murders within the past eighteen months including GEARSON. CARL VAN EYCK flies to VIENNA,  and arrives at YAKOV's flat. YAKOV believes that someone is killing off the NAZIS.  CARL VAN EYCK spots a suspicious man, blond,  close-cropped hair, early 30s, dressed neatly, listening to them through the front door. YAKOV does not recognize him.  VAN EYCK catches up with VAN EYCK on a tram in VIENNA. He chases him to a sewer. The man is THEOBALD STRUN, a leader of a youth club in MUNICH. He is let go, due to lack of evidence.
IN 1972, during the massacre at the Munich Olympics of Jewish athletes, STRUN is seen helping BLACK SEPTEMBER. AT the Wembley Stadium, he leads a proto-National Front march of racist British youth to "keep Britain white".
In 1976, BLAYDEN goes undercover in ISRAEl. On  the flight home to PARIS to visit FREDA, the AIR FRANCE flight is diverted to ENTEBBE AIRPORT, UGANDA by GERMAN TERRORISTS. He is killed on the orders of IDI AMIN, blacked up and buried under the name "MOISE KINTE".
In 1978, diagnosed with cancer, FREDA tracks VON HISTER down in ALASKA. She shoots him, but finds STRUN there, waiting with a gun. He is a member of a Neo-Nazi division, wiping the Old Guard. She kills him, then escapes.
"L" dies in 1979, and VON EYCK continues his work. YAKOV continues working, as details of the Young Nazi Group seem to suggest it is closed. In 1988, aged 52, FREDA dies in London.