Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr (1981)
"Race for the Yankee Zephyr" (original title)

In a lake high in the mountains of New Zealand hunter Gibbie Gibson discovers a plane wreck from ww-ii. When he tells it around, a gang of crooks follows and threatens him and his daughter,... See full summary »

Director:

David Hemmings

Writer:

Everett De Roche

Stars:

Ken Wahl, Lesley Ann Warren, Donald Pleasence

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ken Wahl	...	Barney
Lesley Ann Warren	...	Sally
Donald Pleasence	...	Gilbert Carson
George Peppard	...	Theo Brown
Bruno Lawrence	...	Baker
Grant Tilly	...	Collector
Harry Rutherford-Jones	...	Harry
Robert Bruce	...	The Bartender
Tony Sparks	...	Brown's Henchman
Clark Walkington	...	Brown's Henchman
Frank Taurua	...	Brown's Henchman
Steve Nicolle	...	Brown's Henchman
Dick Jones	...	Brown's Henchman
Dennis Hunt	...	Brown's Henchman

Storyline

In a lake high in the mountains of New Zealand hunter Gibbie Gibson discovers a plane wreck from ww-ii. When he tells it around, a gang of crooks follows and threatens him and his daughter, because they know there are 50 million dollars in the wreck. Helicopter pilot Barney helps Gibbie against them, risking his life thereby.

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Plot Keywords:

wreck | mountain | hunter | search | agent | 

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Taglines:

Finding it after four decades is quite a challenge . . . but holding onto it is really an adventure! [USA Theatrical]

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Adventure

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Australia New Zealand USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

April 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr

Filming Locations:

New Zealand

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Drake Films Ltd., Endeavour Productions, FGH

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is dedicated to John Rillstone, Bill Clarke, Colin Robinson who were killed during the filming of the jet boat sequences.

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Goofs

When Sally (Lesley Ann Warren) is driving the jet boat she yells at the others, "Gotta turn around. Hang on! Look out!" But her mouth isn't speaking those words.

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Quotes

Barney: It's all right. Air's gettin' a little thin.
Sally: Can we go where it's thick?

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Crazy Credits

After the first unit credits, Theo Brown pops up in the lake, wearing an inflatable life vest and bellowing for help. He continues to call for assistance as the second unit credits roll.

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Connections

Featured in Dead End Drive-In (1986)

User Reviews

I think Donald Pleasence really WAS drunk in this!

Yeah, I know his character was supposed to be a drunk, and he may have been just acting goofy. But something tells this critic that Mr. Pleasence really was drinking a lot and was intoxicated during his scenes in the film. Basically everything he says is slurred and often unintelligible. Or maybe it was just the poor productions values... hard to say.

Anyway, The Race for the Yankee Zephyr is a film that just doesn't work. That's a shame, too, since the film has a terrific opening and a generally interesting plot. Ultimitely the production values are just too low and the action just too sparse for this New Zealand adventure to deliver the goods. The story deals with a US war plane which is filled with gold, money, and medals, which crashes into a lake in New Zealand during WWII. The plane remains lost for about forty years or so until it somehow washes ashore and a drunk (Pleasence) literally stumbles onto it. At first he gathers up all the purple heart medals and tries to sell them in town, actually getting $75 apiece for them! Little does he know that once he sells them, the local jeweler gets on the phone and starts trying to track down info about the plane. Before you can blink, all of the attention brings a wealthy scumbag (Peppard) and his henchmen into town and they quickly try to force the old guy to give up the location of the plane since they know there is much more on it than just medals. The old drunk's business partner (Wahl) and his daughter (Warren) then race out to try and claim the fortune before the bad guys can get to it. The resulting action just isn't as fun as you'd hope it would be.

The acting is rather awful, save for Pleasence. George Peppard tries to do some kind of (I guess) Austrailian accent, but it is hardly convincing. Lesley Ann Warren isn't too bad, but Ken Wahl is really bad. He's basically doing his best impression of Michael Pare on his worst day. And that's saying something. Hopefully he made enough money on this film to fix his front teeth which looked a bit crooked. I don't recall if he'd had them straightened by the time he was in Wiseguy. The rest of the cast are pretty untalented. Probably mostly locals who never did much else. I guess the biggest problems for me were the lack of action for much of the film, and the lack of danger. The villains are just too nice and goofy to be taken seriously. And honestly, there are NO helicopters in the film that look like the ones on the DVD cover. And none of the boats in the film have teeth painted on them, either.

The film does have its strengths, though. The beginning which starts off as a newsreel and then becomes part of the story was a nice touch. Brian May's score sounds a little too much like the one in Mad Max 2, but he included a nice little march they play for Pleasence in some scenes. Sounds just like the one in the Great Escape! There are some neat helicopter stunts and a great boat chase that apparently killed three stunt men during filming. The scenery, despite the grainy look of the picture, is still quite beautiful. The thing you'll remember most is the drunken antics of Donald Pleasence, though. He was almost enough to save this film. Almost. 4 of 10 stars.

The Hound.