THE BATTLING ORIOLES
starring Glenn Tryon, Blanche Mehaffey, John T. Prince, Noah Young
PHOTOPLAY
January, 1925
Sounds like a baseball story but really has very little of the national game. A club of grouchy old fellows, all members of a team of the '70's, discovers the son of one of the members in a small town. The club proceeds to adopt him - and things begin to happen. Finally, the old boys have to rescue him from tough dive, and they do it in a rollickingly funny fight. Brisk, amusing in many places, but a bit tiresome.
THE BATTLING ORIOLES
starring Glenn Tryon, Blanche Mehaffey, John T. Prince, Noah Young
MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE
December, 1924
Straight from the Hal Roach fun factory comes this enjoyable slice of merriment - which moves vigorously and release a volume of highly amusing gags. It opens with some excellent comedy depicting baseball as it was played in 1870 - and builds to a climax, which offers an uproarious piece of slap-stick burlesquing, the conventional ending which features so many "action" pictures.
The gal is in the hands of some ruffians who try to force her to enter into their crooked schemes. The hero gamely fights them, but it is a losing battle until the aged Orioles get back some of the fighting spirit which terrorized the umpires in their ball games of the middle '80's and wade into the ruffian ranks. Glenn Tryon and Blanche Mehaffey are the featured players and score their points easily. The piece sags badly in the middle, but comes to life and finishes with good sparkle.
THE BATTLING ORIOLES
starring Glenn Tryon, Blanche Mehaffey, John T. Prince, Noah Young
MOVIE WEEKLY
November 15, 1924
Hal Roach has turned out so many worthwhile screen works that
when one views "The Battling Orioles" he can't help
but wonder to himself, "Why?" Here is a picture that
outdoes itself when it comes to slapstick. There are gags that
follow fast and fuirous, many of them exceedingly funny, it is
true, but the entire dictionary of Gagdom is incorporated in "The
Battling Orioles." If all of the furniture and bric-a-brac
broken in this comedy were laid end to end, it would just about
build a crazy-quilt amphitheatre for a burlesque version of "Benjamin
Hur."
I supposed that I would get quite a kick out of "The Battling
Orioles," as it suggested that it would have much to do with
Mr. Spaulding's favorite outdoor sport. There is an extremely
hilarious old-time baseball game, but when twenty years or so
elapse, the comedy elapses also. We see a son of one of the battling
ball players trying to put life into a sort of Union League Club,
where his father's old cronies nurse the gout. Then there is the
girl, and a tough cafe where a black-eye is an admission ticket.
Glenn Tryon is the leading comedian. Blanche Mehaffey makes a
pertty heroine, and the rest of the cast are excellent scrappers.
You will get a lot of laughs out of this picture - if you get
what I mean.