Brass Target (1978) HDTV Oldies

In Europe, days after V-E Day, General Patton (George Kennedy) orders that hoarded Nazi gold be transported to the Reichsbank in Frankfurt. But before the shipment arrives in the city, the gold train is robbed and 59 U.S. Army military policemen are killed with poison gas in a railroad tunnel. A group of corrupt American officers, led by a colonel, is behind the crime. Patton launches an investigation that initially leads to OSS major Joe De Lucca (John Cassavetes), from whom the thieves took a plan from his wartime operations to steal the gold. De Lucca begins his own investigation. He first visits his old wartime commander, Colonel Mike McCauley (Patrick McGoohan), who is now living in a requisitioned German castle. Meanwhile, as the investigation gets closer, the corrupt American officers hire a professional assassin named Webber (Max von Sydow) to kill Patton and halt the inquiry. Soon De Lucca meets Mara (Sophia Loren), a former girlfriend, who can help him find the culprits. But they first discover that Webber is on their trail and is also planning to kill Patton. They race against time across war-ravaged Europe to save the general and catch the villainous officers. Webber, posing as an American soldier, kills General Patton in a staged traffic accident. At the precise moment when a military truck collides with Patton's car, Webber fires a rubber bullet, striking Patton and breaking his neck. De Lucca tracks down the assassin and kills him with his own weapon.