"I Cover the War" is a John Wayne film made when he was making half dozen or more movies every year (72 total in the 1930s). So, that tells one right off the start that this won't be a quality film. It was during this potboiler time that Wayne was being cast in films of various genres - as athletes, warriors, adventurers, and even in mysteries and straight dramas. By the 1940s he would have his niche cut for mostly Westerns and war films.
Here he is a newsreel cameraman who covers an Arab uprising in a middle-Eastern country that is a British territory. The plot is flimsy, with a hint of romance included and some supposed comedy that doesn't work at all. Universal wasn't among the major Hollywood studios at the time, and the film's production quality and cast show it to be a low-budget product.
Wayne's acting is fair to good, but that of most of the cast is wooden or lifeless. Except for Wayne, this film doesn't have another known actor even in that day. My relatively high rating of 5 stars is because the film has some historical note in its portrayal of the newsreel camera profession of the past. For movie and history buffs, that might be of some interest. Otherwise, few people other than John Wayne fans would be likely to sit through this whole film.
Here he is a newsreel cameraman who covers an Arab uprising in a middle-Eastern country that is a British territory. The plot is flimsy, with a hint of romance included and some supposed comedy that doesn't work at all. Universal wasn't among the major Hollywood studios at the time, and the film's production quality and cast show it to be a low-budget product.
Wayne's acting is fair to good, but that of most of the cast is wooden or lifeless. Except for Wayne, this film doesn't have another known actor even in that day. My relatively high rating of 5 stars is because the film has some historical note in its portrayal of the newsreel camera profession of the past. For movie and history buffs, that might be of some interest. Otherwise, few people other than John Wayne fans would be likely to sit through this whole film.