Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr

First and foremost I just have to state that nobody – and I do mean NOBODY – could depict a jolly old drunk like Donald Pleasance could! I already worshiped his alcoholic character in "Wake in Fright" (also an Aussie movie and quite possibly the most underrated film of all time), but that was a serious motion picture whereas "The Race for Yankee Zephyr" is more of a light-headed and comical treasure hunting adventure. Either way, Pleasance effortlessly steals every scene he's appearing in as the unintelligibly mumbling and heavily drinking poacher Gilbert Carson. His delicious and infectious laughter alone is enough reason to seek out this sadly forgotten early 80's flick as far as I'm concerned! Along with his "business" partner Barney, Carson is out in the beautiful New Zealand Mountains when a deer hunt goes awry and he falls from the shoddy helicopter into a lake. When he recovers, he actually notices that he stumbled upon the remains of an old American WWII aircraft named Yankee Zephyr. Now, during the brilliantly nostalgic opening sequences, we learned that this aircraft carried on board the Christmas gifts for all overseas fighting soldiers, including many cases of Whiskey, army decorations and a damn big load of gold bars! Carson hardly has the time to convince Barney and his estranged daughter Sally to help him bring back all this richness, as suddenly the obnoxious British millionaire Theo Brown arrives in town to claim the gold. Carson alone knows the exact location, but he definitely doesn't intend to share the gold – let alone the whiskey – with Brown, thus the race for Yankee Zephyr begins. I've read quite a number of negative and complaining reviews about this movie, but I seriously can't figure out why that is. Sure the production values aren't on the same level as other contemporary adventure movies (like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or "Time Bandits") but it's nevertheless an exhilarating and enthusiastic effort that put a vicious grin on my face from start to finish. What's not to like in fact? There are numerous chase sequences on the land, in the air and on the water! There are Aussie bar fights and astounding landscapes to admire. And apart from Pleasance delightful over-the-top performance, there's also George Peppard who clearly enjoyed portraying an exaggeratedly stereotypical British villain. Heck, the film even shamelessly copies the legendary theme music from "The Great Escape"! Especially since I've seen the downright genius documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!" (if you consider yourself to be a cult-movie fanatic and you haven't yet seen this documentary, first of all shame on you and, secondly, hurry up) I've been moderately obsessed with Australian exploitation cinema and this one is a stellar entry. Quite the "dream team" was involved in this, notably writer Everett De Roche ("Razorback", "Long Weekend", "Roadgames"…) and David Hemmings in the director's chair. The latter is mainly known as a great actor ("Deep Red", "Blow-Up") but he also directed a couple of remarkable titles, like "The Survivor" and of course this little gem. Search for it! Unless you're a sourpuss, I guarantee you will not regret it!

A solid film with exceptional production values a few flaws. What really surprises me about this film is just how well acted it is by the supporting cast and the three protagonists. Combine that with some very good cinematography and you have a respectable film.

Toss in a very sumptuous looking New Zealand background and you have a an exceptional production.

The only downside to this production is perhaps the casting of George Peppard as the mercenary antagonist. His accent and overall performance are very misplaced and almost serve as comic relief for a film that needed a good solid villain to anchor it. Peppard nearly derails this film with a horrible effete British accent, but the action and the three leads.

The character driven moments are finely staged, and the action sequences are old fashioned classic pre-CGI film making. Aeriel sequences and boat chases, and even a few fire fights are all in this film combined with the elements I already mentioned.

It's just a few notes shy of being an outstanding film. As it is now it's just a good action film with good drama, some comedy, and one mis-cast villain. It's worth seeing once.

Enjoy.

'Race for the Yankee Zephyr' is alright viewing, though its extremely uneven nature makes it difficult to get into.

Donald Pleasence gives a rather wacky performance as Barney, it looks like he was having fun acting in this - but, as a viewer, he only adds to the chaotic feel of this movie, which is kinda all over the place. Ken Wahl and Lesley Ann Warren are good, though George Peppard's antagonist isn't the best; Peppard himself is OK.

The plot moves at a real meh pace, as it doesn't really leave you a lot to latch on to. It is objectively a quite drawn out way of telling the story, which could've been wrapped up in short film form to be honest! There are worse movies out there no doubt, but this 1981 picture is very much a forgettable one!

This is a nice campy little film that the whole family might enjoy IF you can find a copy anywhere. However there are many unrealistic "shoot em up" scenes, which may leave the young to think that gunplay has no consequences. I won't describe the plot as given elsewhere.

There are two great helicopter chase scenes in the film (reminiscent of "the Gauntlet") that really show off some of the backcountry beauty of New Zealand that frankly, you would not be able to see without a helicopter.

There are also many later scenes of "expert maneuvers" in helicopter, such as "quickstop-pedalturn-reverse heading", a "hammerhead pushover" or two, "sidewall dismount", and "confined spaces settling". The pilotage is excellent.

The film also shows some of the wild ruggedness of New Zealand's South Island, where(at the time the film was made at least in 1981) the only paved roads are in larger towns and cities, and the country thoroughfares are primarily just "metal" (gravel roads) though always well maintained. And yes, the peaks really are that jagged. No special effects.

Donald Pleasance, as a happy go lucky over the hill sot, plays his character to perfection. He makes numerous muttering quips similar to the humorous mutterings you hear in the vintage "a.a.p." Popeye cartoons. Unfortunately, many of these mutterings in RFYZ are unintelligible without multiple rewinds and equalizing to hear what is said. A bit frustrating, as there are probably a few lost jokes in there.

George Peppard's accent is a very forced upper class snotty, which conforms to his portrayed character adequately.

Ken Wahl and Lesley Ann Warren's characters play well off of each other to establish a typical independent rugged male vs. coddled entitled wenging female dynamic that would be "toxic" if not for nuances of a smoldering mutual sexual interest. There is one very brief fully clothed and appearing to have been intentionally directed "doggie style" movement between Wahl and Warren masked in a "struggling to escape" context that adds a subliminal mild eroticism to the play, but will go right over the heads of the kiddies. (Though may well spark Mom and Dad's fantasies once the kiddies have gone to sleep . . . .) There are no overt sexual references in the film that the kiddies would understand, however there is a brief "wet slip" scene which does faintly reveal the nature of LAW's upper "endowments".

Shooting violence is significant, including use of assault weapons, but amazingly through the expenditures of hundreds of rounds of ammo, nobody ever gets hurt(hooray for Hollywood), nor is their accompanying gore.

Conversational and expletive profanity (all but the F word and genital synonyms) are typical for middle class language, and would likely only be offensive to "devout" types, though may be inappropriate to guarded "inculcation" of pre-teens.

Overall a fun "adventure" type film that all can enjoy as long as the young'uns are thoroughly coached or cognizant that in real life all the gunplay would really end up with lot's of dead people. And a must see for anyone interested in the wilds of New Zealand that could otherwise not be seen, or any student of rotor-wing aviation. Though all shots are exterior, so accurate control inputs are not shown. Choppers used are Hughes 269, Hughes 500C and Bell 206.

In a lake high in the mountains of New Zealand hunter Gibbie Gibson (Donald Pleasence) discovers a plane wreck , the contents of the stash in the cargo aircraft comprised a shipment of gold war medals, Christmas mail correspondence, a crate of 100 bottles of Kentucky-made Old Crow bourbon whiskey, 1000 gold-bars in gold bullion and the entire payroll in cash for the American South Pacific Fleet. The value of the cargo in the film's story-line was said to be US $50 million . Finding it after four decades is quite a challenge , but holding onto it is really an adventure . It puts moody Gibson , her daughter (Lesley Ann Warren) and an adventurer , a helicopter pilot (Ken Wahl), chasing the treasure hidden since 1944 in the plane wreck of the Yankee Zephyr and risking their lives thereby. Meanwhile , a nasty gang boss (George Peppard) and his hoodlums on their tails . As a group of crooks follow and threaten them .

This exciting film packs thrills , non-stop action , humor , helicopter pursuits , motorboat chases and wonderful landscapes . The picture was originally conceived as being a comic-adventure caper in the style of 1963's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and the film was "New Zealand's first big budget ($6 million) co-production". There's denying the energy in the frenetically paced flick but it remains flawed and sometimes unfocused. One of the big early creative decisions about the picture was whether this action-adventure-race film would be an off-road land or underwater salvage movie . The movie was re-titled 'Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr' for its distribution in the USA and it was first shown in America via pay-cable, where it carried no rating but was preceded with a warning vis-a-vis violence and strong language . The casting is frankly good , as Star Billing the followings : Ken Wahl , Lesley Ann Warren , Bruno Lawrence and special mention to George Peppard as a snarling villain and Donald Pleasence as a likable drunk . Gorgeous outdoors shot in location in the rugged terrain from New Zealand . Although the film was made in New Zealand instead of Australia due to an Australian Actor's Equity dispute , this was due to the refusal to permit four foreign actors to be cast in the film's four top-billed lead roles ,as such, this meant there would be not one Australian actor in any of these parts . Before the picture's setting was located to the South Island of New Zealand due to union disputes, the film was originally intended to be set in the rain forests of tropical north Queensland, Australia, specifically in the region of Cape York.

This was second of two Australian theatrical feature films that were directed by David Hemmings in the early 1980s , the first was The survivor (1981) . Both films were made with producer Antony I. Ginnane and both movies featured an airplane as a central story element . David Hemmings replaced Richard Franklin as director. The latter was the film's original director but withdrew from the production when the filming location changed from Australia to New Zealand . This was last cinema movie directed by David Hemmings for around eleven years until 1992's Dark Horse (1992). Hemmings' only other theatrical feature after that movie was 1996's Lone Justice 3 (1996). In between these three pictures Hemmings did direct in television such as A Team (1983), Airwolf (1984), Magnum P.I. (1980) and Quantum Leap (1989).