Race For The Yankee Zephyr  (aka: Treasure Of The Yankee Zephyr,
1981) - this Australian movie, featuring lots of great helicopter action, was made in New Zealand. Following a WW2 prologue, the film starts with
a Hughes 500C plus a 500D used in a breathtaking aerial sequence as demo for the airborne hunting of deer, caught in a net and hauled away, suspended
beneath a helicopter.
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There's a Hughes 300 (269C) joining this hunting spree, but Gibbie (Donald Pleasence) is - perhaps accidentally - hooked on a rope and then dropped
from the airborne chopper into a lake. Gibbie's daughter, heroine Sally (Lesley Ann Warren), does not believe the old Hughes 300 is safe to fly in,
but pilot Barney (Ken Wahl) leaves her with no choice, later on...
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While grounded for repairs, the little helicopter becomes another quirky 'character' in this daredevil story, when Barney uses its whirling rotors
to blow mud at the chief villain (George Peppard), whose henchman plants a tracking device on the Hughes 300, before Barney flies into town, landing
on the local jetty and ferry pier, scattering bystanders.
Barney picks up Gibbie, and reluctant passenger Sally, leaving town in a hurry, pursued by the bad guys in their Bell 206 JetRanger III. Along the
scenic routes, the Hughes 300 gets engine trouble, and (sadly, marking the 'death' of a machine character!) crash-lands in the mountains, but our
heroic trio survive unscathed.
The helicopter's wreckage is soon towed by tractor off to a nearby farmstead, where some welders attach the helicopter's broken cabin onto an old
caterpillar-track wheelbase, although this makeshift getaway vehicle is destroyed when it falls down a hillside, while Barney & Co escape from
the villains.
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With the JetRanger again in pursuit of running heroes, a rifleman on the low-flying helicopter keeps shooting at them, and he drops a net onto
Gibbie, who is hauled away like a captured deer. From the bad guys' campsite, the Bell 206 continues flying around while searching for Barney
and Sally.
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Before the speedboat chase, the hero manages to sabotage the JetRanger, so it's forced into an emergency landing on the riverbank, where the helicopter's
engine catches fire, and it explodes after the chief henchman (Bruno Lawrence) has jumped to safety. Overall, this action caper movie is a superb
comedy-adventure, and it boasts many excellent flying sequences over spectacular landscapes.
Picture adverts for this movie, includes poster artwork (above left), and cover for the region 4 DVD release (above right), both of which are
obviously accurate in their depiction of helicopters in Race For The Yankee Zephyr...
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However, Region 1 sleeve artwork for alternative title Treasure Of The Yankee Zephyr, features a trio of Russian military helicopters
(Mil Mi-24 Hind gunships) which do not appear in the film. Shame, not truth, in advertising!
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