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Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1981)

Director: David Hemmings

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From Time Out Film Guide

The Yankee Zephyr of this amiable treasure hunt yarn is a US Navy cargo plane, missing since 1944, with a shipment of medals, a crate of Old Crow, and 50 million dollars in gold bullion aboard. The race to claim the salvage rights involves jet boats, beat-up helicopters, and mechanical abortions of the latter's parts, with Pleasence as a wheezy old sot who discovers the wreck. Pitting him and his macho partner (Wahl) against the suave penthouse chic of Peppard's businessman, Hemmings operates the race at a stop/start pace that leaves you feeling genial enough to forgive the stereotyping and the thin running jokes. It's all so lightweight that the action has to be anchored into place by a picaresque script involving crocodiles and their various genitalia.

Author: FL 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


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