Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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The
Battling Orioles
(1924)
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Glenn Tryon stars in this comedy feature film, directed by Fred Guiol and Ted Wilde, from the Hal Roach Studios. Blanche Mehaffey and Noah Young costar. Special appearance by members of Our Gang. Not really much baseball in the film.
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 Grapevine Video
2019 Blu-ray Disc edition
The Battling Orioles (1924), black & white, 54 minutes, not rated, with Felix Goes West (1954), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated, and Two-Lip Time (1926), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video,
no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R BDMV); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; LPCM 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 17 May 2019.
Country of origin: USA
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This BD-R edition has been prepared from a 2K high-definition scan of what is likely to be a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely to be accompanied by the same music score performed on piano that was utilized for Grapevine’s 2009 DVD edition (noted below), muted in fidelity, that may originate from an analog optical soundtrack in the source print. The piano performance may be by William Perry, which might indicate that the source print was prepared by Paul Killiam in the early 1970s.
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This Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) edition is available directly from . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2019 DVD edition
The Battling Orioles (1924), black & white, 54 minutes, not rated, with Felix Goes West (1954), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated, and Two-Lip Time (1926), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 6-60845-44170-5.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 17 May 2019.
Country of origin: USA
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This remastered DVD-R edition has been prepared from a 2K high-definition scan of what is likely to be a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely to be accompanied by the same music score performed on piano that was utilized for Grapevine’s 2009 DVD edition (noted below), muted in fidelity, that may originate from an analog optical soundtrack in the source print. The piano performance may be by William Perry, which might indicate that the source print was prepared by Paul Killiam in the early 1970s.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2009 DVD edition
The Battling Orioles (1924), black & white, 54 minutes, not rated, with Forty Winks (1930), black & white, 7 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10170-0.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 12 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.95.
Release date: 2009.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 5 / additional content: 4 / overall: 5.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print. Some highlights are burnt-out to featureless white in many shots. Picture details are a bit blurry.
The film is accompanied by a music score performed on piano, muted in fidelity, that may originate from an analog optical soundtrack in the source print. The piano performance may be by William Perry, which might indicate that the source print was prepared by Paul Killiam in the early 1970s.
Supplemental material includes a Fritz the Cat cartoon with its primitive soundtrack.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition has been discontinued and is . . .
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 Alpha Video
2014 DVD edition
The Battling Orioles (1924), black & white, 54 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7360D, UPC 0-89218-73609-3.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 29 April 2014.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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Other BASEBALL FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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