Slapstick Summer Series: The Original Queen of Comedy | Laughing Gas (1907)

Significant not just for having the comedic lead portrayed by a woman, but also a woman of color. Bertha Regustus, listed on IMDB with just a single movie credit, is a delight in this film directed by Edwin S. Porter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234086/

Slapstick Summer Series: A Killer Joke | That Fatal Sneeze (1907)

Under-appreciated gem by Lewin Fitzhamon about an elderly man caught in a powerful sneezing fit as a result of retaliatory pepper from a whipper-snapper he mildly pranked at the film's beginning.

The humorous effects are creative and crescendo appropriately to the grand finale.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000621/

Slapstick Summer Series: Key Stepping Stone | The Policemen's Little Run (1907)

The first intersection of chase movies with slapstick - The Policeman's Little Run (aka La Course des Sergents de Ville, literally "The Run of the Village Constables"), directed by Ferdinand Zecca.

Preceding the Keystone Cops by 6 years, this slapstick-chase also includes a surprising trick-film sequence for added measure. The wall-climbing effect was previously done by Georges Méliès (and later by Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman & Robin), but here its impact is amplified by the scrolling camera.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234486/

Slapstick Summer Series: Exhibit E. Porter | Getting Evidence (1906)

Not just an early example of well-executed slapstick, but overall a truly wonderful film - one which seems much more modern than expected, thanks primarily to the skilled direction of Edwin S. Porter. The multiple vignettes offer a nice variety of humorous scenarios, many of which contain superb shot compositions far above what was common for the time.

And, for some reason, I can’t help but imagine Peter Sellers and David Niven in the lead roles.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287461/

Slapstick Summer Series! - A Story Well Spun (1906), Pre-Iconic

A lesser-known work from the world's first female filmmaker, but one which is expertly filmed and a herald of things to come. From the start we see a Tramp-ish character as the lead, immediately pulling our mind toward Chaplin. We are then treated to an excellent chase-less chase sequence almost a decade before The Keystone Cops popularized chase films as a genre. The "stunts", primarily created with the stop-edit replacement tricks standard for the time, are of the type that Buster Keaton would later perform without the proverbial safety-net.

Bonus: Try to spot the man pushing the barrel on the railroad tracks at the 0:50 mark. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1649428/