I should have told you about this earlier. Turner Classic Movies is running a "free, flexible online exploration of Slapstick comedy" class in connection with films they're running tonight and intermittently through the month. They have silent movies on this evening and tomorrow night. (The best film tomorrow night is Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr.) Info on the course and the full schedule can be accessed here.
I'm a bit puzzled as to what definition of the word "slapstick" applies to the films selected — they mostly just seem to be broad comedies — but hey, I'm all for running broad comedies. On Wednesday the 21st, they have It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World followed by The Great Race, which I'm going to think of as a brief, unintended Marvin Kaplan Film Festival. More on Mad World in the next posting here…