Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

John Wayne (Bob Adams), Gwen Gaze (Pamela), Don Barclay (Elmer Davis), Pat Somerset (Archie), Major Sam Harris (Colonel Armitage), Charles Brokaw (El Kader/Muffadi), James Bush (Don Adams), Arthur Aylesworth (Logan), Earl Hodgins (Blake), Jack Mack (Graham), Franklyn Parker (Parker), Frank Lackteen (Mustapha), Olaf Hytten (Sir Herbert), Keith Kenneth (sergeant major), Abdulla (Abdul), Richard Tucker (man). Director: ARTHUR LUBIN. Screenplay: George Waggner. Original story: Bernard McConville. Photography: Harry Neumann, Stanley Cortez. Film editors: Charles Craft, Emma Horsley. Art director: E.R. Hickson. Music director: Charles Previn. Technical advisors: Major Sam Harris, Sheikh Al Rowaf. Sound recording: Joe Lapis, Jess Bastian. Associate producer: Paul Malvern. Executive producer: Trem Carr. Copyright 22 June 1937 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Globe: 1 August 1937. U.S. release: 2 May 1937. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 17 January 1938. 69 minutes.SYNOPSIS: An Arab revolt in Mesopotamia is crushed by a couple of American newsreel cameramen. COMMENT: Wayne plays with an agreeably light touch, but the script drags a bit - underlined by a ponderous music score - and the direction is largely routine, save for three or four shots doubtless inspired by the photographers. I could be wrong, but my feeling is that Neumann did all the exteriors - California aptly masquerading as Arabia -plus some of the first half interiors, whilst Cortez handled the more spectacular studio stuff, including those extraordinary shots in the film laboratory.

Most of John Wayne's roles before he became a big star were mostly as B-movie cowboys. However, he made a few Bs for Universal in the late 30s and early 40s and these roles were far less cowboy and far more adventure films. While none of these were great films, they were enjoyable. However, "I Cover the War!" is one I could never find until now...and it's available through YouTube.In many ways this is similar to Clark Gable's "Somewhere I'll Find You" as the leading man plays a reporter who is in competition with his brother. In this case, John Wayne plays Bob Adams, a newsreel cinematographer and his brother, Don, is SUPPOSED to be off in college but he quit school to become a newsreel guy like his brother! Both end up in a fictional British colony in North Africa* and Bob does NOT welcome Don...he wants him to have a better and more responsible job. Ultimately, an evil man posing as a newsreel man uses Don for his own ends...and nearly is responsible for wiping out the local British outpost! Can Bob somehow figure all this out, save the day AND get the girl? It's Wayne...so what do you think?!This is an enjoyable formulaic movie with modest B-movie pretenses. In other words, it's a short film with no stars (apart from Wayne) and represents the sort of productions Wayne was doing in his pre- megastar period. Worth seeing if you love Wayne, otherwise an easy one to skip.

John Wayne plays a newsreel photographer in director Arthur Lubin's "I Cover The War" with his usual reckless bravado. Ray Adams (John Wayne) works for an outfit headquartered in London. He winds up in the thick of the action in North Africa where the Arabs stage an uprising against British colonial authority. The British are depicted with respect, honor, and dignity, and "Operation Pacific" scenarist George Waggner and Lubin treat us to one of the earliest examples of the impact of aerial bombing. The scene in question shows the Royal Air Force flying like the cavalry to the aid of their out-numbered colleagues who are trapped by an army of Arabs. Wayne's performance here seems more easy-going than in his other films outside Universal. Lubin must have made him feel comfortable in front of the camera because he was just as affable in Lubin's "California Straight Ahead." "I Cover The War" never wears out its welcome. This madcap adventure comedy was Universal Pictures beat MGM to the big screen with this madcap adventure comedy, but it didn't score at the box office like Jack Conway's "Too Hot to Handle" with Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Walter Pidgeon.

John Wayne and Don Barclay are a couple of daredevil and irreverent newsreel cameramen, as adept at driving their boss crazy as Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon were in Too Hot To Handle. They've drawn a lovely assignment, cover a war brewing in Iraq. A mysterious Red Shadow like leader named Maffadi is stirring up all kinds of problems with the British puppet government running things in Baghdad. Nobody even knows who this Maffadi character is.In addition to his newsreel assignment, Wayne's got a romance brewing with Gwen Gaze the daughter of the British colonel Sam Harris. And a younger brother played by James Bush who wants to follow the Duke into the newsreel business. Bush's eagerness to show up Wayne make him an easy mark for a couple of unscrupulous gunrunners who are arming Maffadi and his tribesmen. It's up to the Duke to straighten all things romantic, political and familial before the 68 minute running time of I Cover The War.I Cover The War is done in the same tongue in cheek vein as MGM's Too Hard To Handle. It's not as good a film, on the other hand MGM spent a lot of money on their movie, far more than Universal did on I Cover The War.Charles Brokaw who plays Maffadi is a clever and unscrupulous villain who comes pretty close to winning. It would be interesting what point of view a film like I Cover The War would take today.I Cover The War is one of six films Wayne did with Universal in 1936-1937, none of them westerns, but all of them action films in an effort to broaden his casting potential. This is neither the best or the worst of them.