yeah and i know his character be suppose to be a drunk and and he may have be just act goofy . but something tell this critic that mr. pleasence really be drink a lot and be intoxicate during his scene in the film . basically everything he say be slur and often unintelligible . or maybe it be just the poor production value . hard to say . anyway and the race for the yankee zephyr be a film that just doesn not work . that a shame and too and since the film have a terrific opening and a generally interesting plot . ultimitely the production value be just too low and the action just too sparse for this new zealand adventure to deliver the good . the story deal with a u war plane which be fill with gold and money and and medal and which crash into a lake in new zealand during wwii . the plane remain lose for about forty year or so until it somehow wash ashore and a drunk ( pleasence ) literally stumble onto it . at first he gather up all the purple heart medal and try to sell them in town and actually get $ 75 apiece for them . little do he know that once he sell them and the local jeweler get on the phone and start try to track down info about the plane . before you can blink and all of the attention bring a wealthy scumbag ( peppard ) and his henchman into town and they quickly try to force the old guy to give up the location of the plane since they know there be much more on it than just medal . the old drunk business partner ( wahl ) and his daughter ( warren ) then race out to try and claim the fortune before the bad guy can get to it . the resulting action just isn not as fun a you would hope it would be . the acting be rather awful and save for pleasence . george peppard try to do some kind of ( i guess ) austrailian accent and but it be hardly convincing . lesley ann warren isn not too bad and but ken wahl be really bad . he basically do his best impression of michael pare on his bad day . and that say something . hopefully he make enough money on this film to fix his front teeth which look a bit crooked . i do not recall if he would have them straighten by the time he be in wiseguy . the rest of the cast be pretty untalented . probably mostly local who never do much else . i guess the big problem for me be the lack of action for much of the film and and the lack of danger . the villain be just too nice and goofy to be take seriously . and honestly and there be no helicopter in the film that look like the one on the dvd cover . and none of the boat in the film have teeth paint on them and either . the film do have it strength and though . the beginning which start off a a newsreel and then become part of the story be a nice touch . brian may score sound a little too much like the one in mad max 2 and but he include a nice little march they play for pleasence in some scene . sound just like the one in the great escape . there be some neat helicopter stunt and a great boat chase that apparently kill three stunt men during filming . the scenery and despite the grainy look of the picture and be still quite beautiful . the thing you will remember most be the drunken antic of donald pleasence and though . he be almost enough to save this film . almost . 4 of 10 star . the hound .