Sam and Bella Spewack's charming Christmas comedy, adapted from a French play, is set in French Guiana at the modest general store of the well-meaning but hopelessly unbusinesslike Ducotel family, whose finances and domestic troubles are quietly, cheerfully rescued by three escaped convicts from the nearby penal colony who have talked their way into doing odd jobs around the shop. Joseph, Jules, and Alfred, an embezzler, a seducer, and a murderer respectively, prove to be far more competent, kind-hearted, and shrewd than their crimes would suggest, and as they observe the Ducotels' mounting troubles, including a crooked business rival and a stuffy, unwanted suitor threatening the family's daughter's happiness, the three "angels" quietly and pragmatically decide to solve every problem through means considerably less legal than angelic. With wry humor about the gap between conventional morality and genuine goodness, the convicts orchestrate a series of convenient disappearances and financial rescues, all while maintaining an air of butlerish helpfulness that keeps the increasingly suspicious authorities off their trail. The play's gentle, wintry warmth, its message that true virtue doesn't always look respectable, and its abundance of charming character roles for its three leads made it a beloved holiday-season favorite for community theaters.

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