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).
