Simply A Masterpiece

Sadly Over-hyped

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

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.

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.

Before Stagecoach turned John Wayne into a celebrated wooden actor, he was a an ordinary uncelebrated wooden actor in a series of odd projects. Probably the most interesting of these odd deals is this movie. It doesn't seem to be rentable.In terms of the actual production, its the standard mess, made a bit worse by the fact that you have to portray war and Arabs. There's lots of fun in it though. Wayne is a dummy and there's less wrapping on that. The setup has to do with Brits and Arabs and has plenty of stuff to chew on: occupation, resistance, duped natives, gunrunning, subterfuge... all things that resonate differently now.But what interests me is the folding. It was a great adventure of the industry to discover different means to write themselves and the viewers into the film. All sorts of different things: writers in the story, actors, filmmakers, con men. One of the most interesting to me is the newsroom center, something that has energy that we have in no other place today.A cool slant on that was the newsreel crew. More dangerous, more relevant to the folding notion. Here, Wayne's character is making movies that are fresh and dangerous. There capturing of the images is folded into the drama of the story — no matter that the story is trite.Its a curiosity that to me is more interesting than any of the celebrated Wayne movies.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.