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"4 A.M." is about two lodgers in a country hotel. One arrives late and is disturbed by the snoring of the other. Forced to share a room, one protests against the snoring, while the other claims he does not snore. One is angry that he cannot sleep, the other because he is not allowed to. Not sleeping, they learn that the latecomer is there to meet his wife, whom he married five years earlier. The other discloses he was married to the same woman ten years earlier and faked his death. The first exclaims he is now free of her, the first husband being alive. The first then immediately threatens to kill himself. He attempts to escape but the second husband calls to the landlord that the man is trying to jump his bill. The land lord enters, mentioning that a woman was killed on the 4 a.m. train by an automobile. The two husbands become excited but learn that it was the landlord's wife who was killed. A woman (poorly imitated by a man) is heard calling from off-stage. The two men push the landlord ahead with the statement that he is her husband.
The sketch has an excellent start, but falls near the finish, ending lamely. This many be partly to blame through the introduction of a property man, such a minor character, and never seeing the often mentioned, and grotesquely made up descriptions of the wife. She should be seen. The landlord, while bringing some comedy, could be entirely eliminated as it removes all plausibility from the sketch. A regular sketch writer is needed to reconfigure the sketch. It's too good to be lost and not good enough at present for more than the "smaller time."
Source:
Variety 22:4 (04/01/1911)