Many years ago I attended a film-script-writing course and at the end of our first session we were instructed, as our homework for the night, to write an overview of a film. Disappointingly, my offering was not the one then chosen to be developed by the group.  Equally disappointingly, a minor work emergency prevented me from completing the course. I hope you find my proposal for a screen thriller interesting.  It has the odd flaw and a few inconsistencies, but it is what it is – a concept, penned in a rush overnight.  In 2011 Steph and I got to ride over the Stelvio Pass fulfilling a long-held dream.

Murder of the Don (A television drama … or a feature film): Overview

The story begins in London and moves to Northern Italy. It features Bryan, a shy country boy from New Zealand who has been brought up in isolation on a small island in the Marlborough Sounds, which leaves him a little socially inept.  The only time he is at ease is when he is with his Greek landlady and when he is working on his vintage 3-wheeler Morgan in his lock-up underneath the railway arches.

Forced to take the underground one day when his motorbike fails him, he sees the girl of his dreams (Rose) in the window of another underground train when it travels alongside for a period.  They trade smiles and part.

The next night they see each other again and laugh. Egged on by his landlady Anna, he prepares signs to hold up but they keep missing each other … for a time. Even with his bike repaired Bryan takes the train each day hoping for a glimpse of the elusive Rose. Emboldened by the constant urgings of Anna, Bryan traces the other train and takes time off work to catch it.  He does finally succeed and finds Rose sitting with her friend Wendy, looking out the window eagerly looking to catch sight of the open-faced stranger.

Bryan asks Rose to come to Italy for an International Morgan 3-wheeler rally he is helping to organise in a week’s time.  On a whim she says yes to the surprise and amazement of Wendy who has been just berating her for being too stereotypically conventional … a prisoner of her upbringing. Rose responds to his hesitant, red-faced stammering with a cheeky “Yes, but no sex please … I’m British.”

The most wonderful journey follows and Bryan takes her through the little used 9,000 ft Stelvio Pass into the top of Italy. After admiring the stunning views from the top they free-wheel down the switch-backed pass without starting the motor while Rose films and narrates.  This leads them to sweep around a bend just as a Mafia team pushes a car off a torturous bend.  Surprise turns to horror and the mafia gives chase.

Narrowly escaping, the police are found and a young policeman warns of what they have filmed as a powerful Don is caught on film.  The policeman is thrilled but frightened telling them he will give it over to his sister in Vice. Our heroes hide in the country with Romany gypsies while the mafia hunts for the distinctive vehicle only to find many of them arriving for the International Rally. They see ones of all different colours but not the red and white one of Bryan and Rose.

Rose returns on foot to the Police Station seeing on the way a poster showing the young policeman and a young woman officer (the sister) have been shot. Frightened, Bryan rings his landlady only find she has been tortured and killed.  They ring Rose’s family to find they have been approached by strangers wanting to know where they are.

Deciding the only way to stop the killing, is to kill the Don, Bryan arranges for all the Morgans to take kids from a local orphanage to the Don’s Chateau for a picnic with the local media in attendance.  All the drivers are dressed in clowns’ clothes. Bryan and Rose swap vehicles with a Belgian, having already turned off a fuel cock which would ensure he would have trouble and not get to the Chateau.

On the pretence of thanking the Don at the end of the picnic, Bryan gets him alone in his study and kills him Sicilian-style with a garrote. He locks the door from the inside and slips away through the French-doors and joins the crowd driving away. They regain their own Morgan and flee to Slovenia with the Romany gypsies they hid with earlier.  They are safe … for now.

Notes:  Although Bryan is not well developed socially, he has an unusual talent. Through the years of his remote upbringing he was exposed to his mother’s rock and roll music.  His mother was a city girl trapped on a remote island. Her only escape was through her records and tapes.  This resulted in Bryan being able and not the least shy at singing hundreds of tunes from the 60’s and 70’s … he has sung at full volume to his ovine audiences for years. It is natural that with his beloved Morgan having no radio that the practice should continue.  He is a wonderful singer and natural mimic, being able to “add in” the music as he sings.  Although shy, people naturally like Bryan because he is gentle in manner but rugged and strong in demeanour.  He says little but listens well.

Rose is a lovely looking girl, from the West Country … attractive rather than beautiful.  Bryan is smitten by her smiling eyes, expressive face and the ease with which she laughs.  Her friends always rib her for being too nice, too conventional, too sharing, too caring.  She has bounced back from a home-town engagement to a trainee accountant that lasted two years but petered out as the passion wilted and his over-bearing, over-cautious family became all too much for her.  After fleeing to London, Rose now works for an events management company but is frustrated at always being the person on the phones and not the real facilitator of the action.  Maybe Bryan is the right man, in the right place, at the right time.  

Morgan three-wheelers are legendary sporting vehicles from the 1930’s powered by various motorcycle engines (British Anzani, Matchless, JAP).  They have two wheels at the front and one at the rear and they offered incredible performance in their day because of the light weight and good power-to-weight ratio. Although not fast by today’s standards, they handle extremely well and would out-perform large modern cars on winding, twisting roads such as those found in the mountains of Northern Italy. On a whim, for the trip south Bryan changes his “cooking” British Anzani engine for a more sporting JAP race-tuned one that he keeps for outings at Brands Hatch, Mallory Park, Silverstone etc. One of the reasons for wanting to take a passenger is the need to have a second person operating the hand brake which works on the rear wheel while the driver steers, changes gear and operates the hand throttle all at once … there isn’t a hand spare to do the rear braking. The cockpit of the machine is small which dictates a person no bigger than the size of Rose.

The Stelvio Pass is a little used alpine road from Switzerland to Italy.  It was used for sporting motor rallies and hill climbs through the 1930’s to the 1960’s. It passes 9,000 feet and is notable because of the nearly 100 switch-back hairpin turns on the pass. Tunnels through the Alps have made its use purely recreational, with hardy cyclists and motorcyclists being the most popular users.

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