Expert: Jim Kason - 3/12/2010

Question
The song "The Angels are Lighting God's Little Candles" is from a film from the late 1940's. It is the first movie I remember seeing and I believe it had something to do with pirates. May have starred Yvonne De Carlo or Judy Garland. The song was sung on a beach. I have never been able to find the name of the movie,but since I lived in a very small town we saw mostly "B' movies so I think it may be from some long-forgotten film. Can you help????

Answer
Hi Garry,

I hope that the following info may be of some help to you.    I definitely know thay Judy Garland never sang the "Angels" song in any of her films or on any of her recordings (although she did star in a musical called "The Pirate".

Also, Yvonne de Carlo was in a couple of pirate films, but didn't sing that song either.  It had two popular recordings by Hank Snow and Jimmy Boyd, BUT........

The only time it was sung on screen, was in a 1953 Gene Autry film called "Pack Train", and it was sung out-of-doors on a ranch.  You can see a video clip of the number at:
http://www.geneautry.com/geneautry/motionpictures/videos/godslittlecandles.html

The film also starred Gail Davis and Shiela Ryan, and a character on the film was a girl called "Jude" or "Judy".  Go to the following site for the plot of the film, and click on "Full Synopsis":
http://www.tcm.com:80/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=86107

Hope this is the film you're looking for.

Sincerely,

Jim K.