Zephyr ‘sells’ Queenstown

Press, 23 November 1981, Page 9

Zephyr ‘sells’ Queenstown

RACE FOR THE YANKEE ZEPHYR Directed by David Hemmings Written by Everett de Roche “Race for the Yankee Zephyr" (Regent) is by far the most ambitious film yet made in New Zealand and deserves to do well. As a light adventure comedy. it also, has a lot going for it: a slight but interesting plot, plenty of action, and the presence of Donald Pleasence and George Pep-

pard. and the greatest star of all — the magnificent scenery of the Queens’own area. The story’ concerns the search for a United States, cargo plane which has been' missing since it first dropped from the skies during a flight from New Guinea to ’ New Zealand in December, 1944. Unrecovered along with the wreck are a.consignment of war medals, Christmas

mail for the troops and the entire payroll, for the American South Pacific fleet, an

estimated $5O million in paper money and gold. Gibby Gibson (Pleasence), an aging mountain man who earns a precarious living

through deer hunting by helicopter. accidentally stumbles on the wreck on the side of a lake, discovers a crate, of whisky and the medals but does not seem to be fully aware of what else the plane contains.

He sells the medals to a secondhand dealer (Grant Tilly) and the word soon gets out about what the old man has really found — and the race is on to get there first, particularly by a bunch of unpleasant thugs led by a rather bathetic Peppard. This gives occasion for a number of well done chase sequences by car, helicopter and jet boat which, however, leave one with the feeling that we are watching another episode of “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Pleasence, who seems incapable of a bad performance, holds the.show-together with his very funny portrayal of the old, drunken scoundrel with a rather peculiar Kiwi accent. (Two- of the Americans, Peppard and Leslie Ann Warren,- also come

across with rather strange manners of speaking.) It is the scenery, however, which sets this film apart from your average Saturday matinee movie. The director. David Hemmings, lovingly lingers' on the mountains, valleys and lakes, and this probably also explains the length of the film (almost two hours).

Right from the helicopter deer hunt at the start, we zoom through the air over hill and through dale, giving us a privileged bird’s eye view of true natural beauty. This is one of New Zealand’s and the film’s major assets and should certainly help sell this movie overseas, probably also increasing the number of tourists we can expect.

For the New Zealand film industry, “Race for the Yankee Zephyr’’ is another major milestone, bringing overseas money here, and creating job arid talent opportunity locally. It may not have that distinctive, casual and typically Kiwi feeling of “Goodbye Pork Pie’’ but could prove to be equally as successful both here and overseas.