The Gazebo (1959)

TV writer Elliott Nash buries a blackmailer under the new gazebo in his suburban backyard. But the nervous man can't let the body rest there.

Director:

George Marshall

Writers:

George Wells (screen play), Alec Coppel (play),

Stars:

Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Glenn Ford	...	Elliott Nash
Debbie Reynolds	...	Nell Nash
Carl Reiner	...	Harlow Edison
John McGiver	...	Sam Thorpe
Mabel Albertson	...	Miss Chandler
Doro Merande	...	Matilda
Bert Freed	...	Lt. Joe Jenkins
Martin Landau	...	The Duke / A. Wellington Broos
Robert Ellenstein	...	Ben
Dick Wessel	...	Louis the Louse (as Richard Wessel)
Herman	...	Herman the Pigeon

Storyline

TV writer Elliott Nash buries a blackmailer under the new gazebo in his suburban backyard. But the nervous man can't let the body rest there.

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Plot Keywords:

gazebo | blackmail | hitchcock | corpse | live television | 

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Taglines:

MURDER CAN BE FUN! (original print ad - all caps)

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

January 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

A kilátó

Company Credits

Production Co:

Avon Productions (II), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the last black-and-white feature appearance by Debbie Reynolds, performing her final monochrome song and dance - "Something Called Love" (music by Walter Kent, lyrics by Walton Farrar).

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Goofs

When Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds are chasing the pigeon around the living room, they knock over the fireplace tools. In the next scene the detective chases the pigeon into the fireplace and the tools are upright, behind the screen.

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Connections

Referenced in Head Above Water (1996)

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Soundtracks

"Something Called Love"
by Walter Kent and Walton Farrar
Performed by Debbie Reynolds (uncredited)

User Reviews

Tries A Funny Hand At Murder

I've maintained this before, one day someone is going to do a study of the director/actor team of George Marshall and Glenn Ford. They did some really great work together such as The Sheepman, Imitation General, Texas and Advance To The Rear to name a few. The Gazebo falls in that category as well.

The Gazebo was originally presented on Broadway as a play by Alec Coppel and ran for 218 performances in the 1958-59 season. The roles that Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, and Carl Reiner play were done on Broadway by Walter Slezak, Jayne Meadows, and Edward Andrews. I'm still not fathoming a role originated by Walter Slezak done by Glenn Ford. I'm betting the role had to have been rewritten for the screen.

I'd like to describe it as a black comedy, but in the end it does turn out all sweetness and light. Ford is a television writer who lives with wife and musical comedy star Reynolds in the suburbs with Reiner as their neighbor. Oh, Reiner happens to be an Assistant District Attorney and Ford just loves picking his brain on how to avoid capture by the police when you commit a homicide.

Which is what Ford has in mind, not suggestions for a television script. Someone's attempting blackmail because they've got some nude photographs of Reynolds in her salad days. He lures the blackmailer to his home and what follows is hilarious.

A lot of the problem has to do with a gazebo that Ford and Reynolds have put in their yard. It might serve as a place to bury a body, but it doesn't quite work out that way.

Besides those already mentioned Marshall put together a good cast to support the leads with Doro Merande as their housekeeper whose normal conversational tone is a roar and John McGiver as the head of the work crew installing The Gazebo.

Special mention should go to a pigeon named Herman who Ford took in and nursed back to health. Some of The Gazebo's funniest moments are provided by Herman.

The Gazebo did get an Oscar nomination for Costume Design, but I think Herman should have been up for a CLIO award.