AllMovie

Originally released on July 1, 1923, the silent, two-reel Dogs of War may well have been the most schizophrenic entry in the entire Our Gang series. The film begins with an elaborate sandlot recreation of a battlefield, with the Our Gang kids staging an elaborate mock war, complete with such "artillery" as rotten eggs and overripe vegetables, and with makeshift tanks and cannons adding to the imaginary carnage. Suddenly an armistice is declared when "Red Cross Nurse" Mary Kornman is called away to the local movie studio to appear in an epic titled Should Husbands Work? for a magnificent five dollars a day. Recognizing a good thing when they see it, the rest of the kids head to the studio (actually the Hal Roach lot) and offer their services as actors. Ordered to get out and stay out, the youngsters devise a clever method to gain access to the studio where, in addition to wreaking their usual havoc, they produce a one-reel "masterpiece" that more closely resembles an Andy Warhol experimental picture of the 1960s. Watch for comedy great Harold Lloyd in an amusing cameo -- which also serves as a plug for Lloyd's latest release, Why Worry?. One TV version of Dogs of War, retitled Hollywood USA, jettisons the "war" sequence entirely, with little damage to the film's continuity.