Disturbing yet enthralling

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This movie was actually photographed in New Zealand and certainly contains some spectacular action footage (which cost the lives of no less than three of the crew), but alas this aspect is somewhat mitigated by some of the worst acting ever seen and heard in a mainstream motion picture. Admittedly, George Peppard hams it up rather amusingly, but the rest of the players were obviously not aware of this Joker in the deck. My thought is that the director left them all to their own devices. In fact, overall they behave as a group of rank amateurs. Some of them even indulge in all sorts of irritating eye-rolling and mouth-gurgling mannerisms. True, the script with its juvenile plotting, its amateurish dialogue and its pasteboard characterizations is no help. To add to her woes, Lesley Ann Warren is very unattractively photographed and costumed. On the other hand, Vincent Monton's photography of the New Zealand backgrounds is both outstanding and utterly breathtaking.

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).

Unbelievably bad. That's all I would say if IMDb didn't insist on at least ten lines, so I will oblige them.* The story sounds all right but is discarded from the outset. * It was written by putting scraps of paper with individual words on them into a hat and then plucking them out at random. * If there was a director he must have been drunk under a table, or perhaps away on holiday. That's what I would claim if I was listed as the director of this film. * The production values were around the level of a school play. Perhaps they wasted their entire budget playing with helicopters. And it's obvious that they were just playing, because none of it has the least thing to do with the story. * There is no acting in this film. All you'll find are cardboard cutouts taped to sticks, and the whole lot waved around in front of the camera while someone off to the side yells gibberish in strange voices. * The scenery is pretty, but it's not anywhere near enough to salvage this. Not even close to being enough! Not even on the same planet, in fact.Recently a Kiwi friend has forced me to watch a pile of New Zealand films with her, and all I can say is that I now no longer have any desire to ever visit New Zealand. It may seem odd to you that a few bad films could ever change my view of an entire nation or willingness to visit it, but if you had to sit through the same incredibly appalling rubbish, I would be willing to bet that you'd feel likewise. ( Watch The Price of Milk and then try and tell me I'm wrong! )

I was really surprised to see all of the negative comments, for even though all we have left is a very lousy copy, it is still watched occasionally and all of the family and friends that have seen it have had nothing but good to say of it.We must just be movie hillbillies as we can have a good time knowing that the movie is just there to entertain.Yes there are a couple of scenes that may not tie together very good but so what? There are similar dis-jointed scenes in Romancing the Stone and the Indiana Jones movies also. In my book this movie is as good as or even better than them because it is even more realistic.The drunk is always drunk, the bad guys are bad and the action is exciting. If anyone gets killed it's not dwelt on, there is no drugs (except booze), the sex is only hinted at and family (and civil) morals are left intact. (Could not sell it today)I am amazed at the number of Tape and DVD jacket covers that do not really relate to the film but the correct one does. Where the bogus covers came from, I don't know, but if you've seen the movie you know which ones are bogus. (The ones with the plane in the water are real)The only thing I would like of this is a good copy, like the first rental one we had that we should have stolen. No good copies seem to be available.