The Gazebo

Plot synopsis:
Television writer and director Elliott Nash (Glenn Ford) is being blackmailed by Dan Shelby (voice of Stanley Adams) over nude photographs of his wife Nell (Debbie Reynolds), taken when she was 18 years old. Elliott does not inform Nell, the star of a Broadway musical, what is going on, but works feverishly to make enough money to pay off the ever-increasing demands.
Finally, Elliott decides that murder is the only way out. He makes preparations, incorporating some advice from a friend, District Attorney Harlow Edison (Carl Reiner). When the blackmailer shows up at the Nashes' suburban home as arranged to collect his latest payment, Elliott shoots him, then hides the body in the concrete foundation being poured for the antique gazebo his wife has bought. He has to keep Sam Thorpe (John McGiver), the contractor hired to install the structure, and Miss Chandler (Mabel Albertson), the real estate agent trying to sell the Nashes' house, from stumbling across his scheme.
Then, Harlow brings news that Shelby has been shot and killed ... in his hotel room, leaving Elliott wondering who he murdered. Nell's name is on a list of blackmail victims belonging to Shelby, so both Elliott and she are suspects. (As it turns out, Shelby approached Nell first, but was rejected; the publicity would have greatly boosted the musical's audience.) They are cleared when the murder weapon is found to belong to Joe the Black, an associate of Shelby's. It is clear to Lieutenant Jenkins (Bert Freed) that Joe decided not to split the money. Elliott is relieved to discover his victim was a criminal.
However, two others were in the gang. The Duke (Martin Landau) and Louis the Louse (Dick Wessel) kidnap Nell and take her to her home. They followed Joe the Black to the Nash house, and know he did not come out. They want the briefcase (containing $100,000) with which he was planning to disappear. They eventually figure out that the body is in the gazebo's foundation, now crumbling due to unexpected rain. They find the briefcase and leave. When Elliott gets home, he unties his wife and confesses what he has done.
While they are trying to figure out what to do next, Lieutenant Jenkins shows up with his prisoners, the Duke and Louis. From what they have told him, Jenkins is sure that Elliott is a murderer. Just as Elliott is about to confess, he sees that the bullet he fired missed Joe and ended up lodged in a book. A doctor confirms that Joe actually died of a pre-existing heart problem, and Elliott's pet pigeon Herman flies off with the bullet, so no evidence ties him to the death.

Tags: suspenseful, murder

Review:
I remembered it being funny when I was 5 and watched it when I was 40....It is still a great tribute to what Ford can do...So funny...and Debbie was so great, and Reiner at his best..Just see it and enjoy..
Glenn Ford is the producer of a television mystery series who attempts to protect his Broadway star wife (Debbie Reynolds) from a blackmailer--and decides to eliminate the blackmailer via a murder plot suggested by his own series.
The result is a comic chaos involving a couple of gangsters, a peculiar pigeon, and the gazebo his wife is having built on their country property.Based on the play of the same name, THE GAZEBO strives for a mix of broad farce, screwball comedy, and sprightly sophistication--and by and large brings it off quite well.
I have never been a great fan of Glenn Ford, but he manages both the broad physical comedy and the clever dialogue of this film with equal ease.
Debbie Reynolds is also quite good in the role of the stage-star wife, and she and Ford have a surprisingly successful chemistry.
He has never, except from his fans and fellow actors, received the recognition his honest acting abilities in drama or comedy have fully deserved.
It may be because those comedies traipsing on dark matters like murder seem to need an element of elegance (in some quarters) to be rated highly.
THE GAZEBO is certainly bereft of elegant villains like Dennis Price and Charlie Chaplin, but it does draw us into the hero's real problems.Elliot Nash (Ford) is a hard-working producer, whose wife Nell (Debbie Reynolds) is an equally hard worker performer.
So on a night that Nell is away from their suburban home, Nash (following a step-by-step plan he even wrote down and put into his desk's top draw) arranges to shoot and kill the blackmailer and to bury the body.
He had originally intended to simply bury it in the back yard, but Nell has accidentally helped him here - it seems (for his birthday gift) she is installing an antique gazebo in the backyard, under the watchful workmanship of John McGiver.
Ford drags the dead body (in an old bath curtain) into the backyard, and puts it into the foundation of the gazebo.The problems arise afterward.
Ford asks Hitch advise "for a plot he's working on" and Hitch helps out.The final ten minutes, when Ford is almost ready to throw himself on the mercy of the detectives (Reiner and Bert Freed, as a Lieutenant who literally louses up his own case), only to change strategies in a moment of clarity, are hysterical.
I think the Gazebo is one of the funniest films I have ever seen,but where is it?To my knowledge it has never appeared on TV,and I don`t think it is available in UK format VHS,what a waste.I would love my children to see it.I don`t normally associate Glenn Ford with comedy,but he was excellent..
His wife is being blackmailed, and his friend, the local district attorney, would like to bed her, and is not shy about showing it.
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.
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 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.
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.
The casting is first-rate, with Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, and Carl Reiner.
Glenn Ford is an underrated actor with a real flair for comedy, as shown here.
Good Fun. 7 out of 10     Fun time filler involving Ford and his attempts at murdering a blackmailer and then burying the body underneath a newly constructed gazebo.
In many ways he was much better at comedy than drama and this film not only proves it, but takes full advantage of it.
The very high strung way he tries to direct a live on air broadcast, that is shown at the beginning of the film, is not only funny but completely on target.
Character actor McGiver is pretty good also playing against type.
An unconventional, black  comedy of sorts, this little gem from 1960 is amusing mainly through Glenn Ford's high strung nervous performance of the desperate husband who's run out of ideas.
Debbie Reynolds and Carl Reiner give adequate performances in their roles.
Ford was hilarious as a blackmailing victim who decides to end his troubles with a simple murder.
Glenn Ford was always a solid, consistent performer, and although I haven't seen this movie since it was first run, I remember much of it.
Players like he, and Thelma Ritter, and dozens of others I could name, but won't, were as responsible for good films as the Stars, and were allowed their moments to shine in the movie.I miss the Old Hollywood.
Glen Ford tries to protect his wife(Debbie) from a blackmailer,so he invites said blackmailer at his house with the plan of killing him thus saving his wife from harassment.Unfortunately he thinks he has killed him,now the problem is to bury the body.
He does under his wife new gazebo But it rains that evening and up comes the body and there we go in hysterical scene after scene trying to keep the body buried and the police at bay.Naturally the whole crime could get undone and Glenn Ford found out all thank to a Pigeon.
Glenn Ford is great as a nervous guy who gets mixed up in murder.
Debbie Reynolds (better known for "Singin' in the Rain") is also great in this movie.
I've always liked Glenn Ford, who I think did a great job here, but I kept thinking what a great role this would have been for Jack Lemmon..
Absurd adaptation of a dinner-theater perennial by Alec Coppel has television-writer Glenn Ford attempting to cover up a murder by burying the corpse underneath wife Debbie Reynolds' garden gazebo.
Ford and Reynolds are actually a good screen match, but not when paired with this leaden script.
Unfortunately I'm in the minority when it comes to "The Gazebo," a 1959 comedy starring Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds and directed by George Marshall.
The premise is that a TV writer (Ford) is being blackmailed over "art" photos of his now Broadway-star wife (Reynolds) and is growing desperate as the financial demands of the blackmailer grow bigger.
He lures the man to his house, kills him, and buries him at the site of the couple's new gazebo.
Problems ensue, such as rain.I'm a big fan of Glenn Ford's, and I thought he and Debbie Reynolds made a wonderful couple.
At the time the film was made, I think both were at the height of their popularity -- Ford was the #1 box office star in 1958, and Debbie graced the cover of every fan magazine.
In any case, there is no need to *embellish* anything, to step away from *realism* the way the actors do it in _The Gazebo_ from the opening minute to the last.Whenever this happens on a consistent basis in a movie -- this intentional withdrawal from reality -- it is the director who bears responsibility.
Yes, all the actors here, most noticeably the two leads, Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds, are supremely accomplished actors, professionals of the highest merit, and they definitely are "cute" to watch.
In fact, I mostly find fault with the performance of the two leads: because neither Ford, nor Reynolds lend credibility to their 2 characters, as they are simply and obviously *actors playing parts*, trying to elicit laughs from the audience.
If you feel a disconnect from the main characters -- and I do, from the very beginning, because they are so artificial -- well, all the shenanigans won't save the movie.I'm afraid _The Gazebo_ got off on the wrong foot from the very start: Glenn Ford, and George Marshall as the director, set the wrong tone for everything in that in the opening scenes, Ford as a supposedly stressed and neurotic TV director, is *not* credible; his neuroticism does not ring true; you're painfully aware you're observing an *actor playing his part*, one that is supposed to be "funny", because this is a "comedy".
If you're not *convincing*, it doesn't matter how cute or funny or beautiful you may be otherwise -- you didn't get the actor's *main* job done.There is an even more awful character than the two lead ones: I mean the housekeeper played by Doro Merande, who keeps hollering at everyone.
A terrific, nuanced performance; McGiver does not need to do anything "extra" to be funny; he is who he is -- the character he plays in the movie; and that by itself is funny enough; I wish *everyone* in _The Gazebo_ was like that.
A. Understatedness is what Debbie Reynolds, but particularly Glenn Ford and George Marshall were missing in _The Gazebo_.
Made in exquisite Cinemascope black & white at a time (late 1950s) when movies of this sort were expected to be produced in full colour, it was an excellent choice that suits the action of a "black comedy" perfectly.
One would assume that a film containing murder, blackmail and pornography would have an edge to it but this Glenn Ford Debbie Reynolds vehicle plays out like a TV situation comedy most of the way, tame and broad.Alan Nash is a befuddled television director feeling pressure from the job and a blackmailer who has nude photos of his wife Nell a Broadway star.
Problem is the blackmailer had associates and Nash's perfect crime begins to unravel fast.Ford's Nash is obvious and over the top employing a lot of Keaton/Lewis slapstick to excess while Reynolds remains cutsie clueless.
He has a fine opening scene as he direct's a live TV show and Reynolds has a decent song and dance number but they remain upstaged throughout by the scene stealing of John McGiver as a contractor and Mabel Albertson as a hearing challenged cleaning lady who provide this light dark comedy with the films only bright moments.
I knew Reynolds was that good but Ford was a revelation.
This is a funny movie about dark subjects: blackmail and death.
Debbie Reynolds is a famous stage actress whose TV writer husband (Glenn Ford) is approached by blackmailers who threaten to ruin her career by releasing some early photos of her.
Why would an Oscar nominated comedy with big name stars like The Gazebo not be available on DVD?It shows on American cable channels occasionally but needs more fan pressure to get it released..
Glenn Ford had begun to show signs of his great comic timing in Imitation General, but I think his unique brand of humour finds its feet in this film.
These days he'd be called a thinking man's Jerry Lewis (until Jerry made The King of Comedy and put his own ghosts to bed), but Glenn has an energy that defies his laconic roles like in The Rounders.
For a man who claimed only to play himself on screen, he shows a delightfully schizoid turn in this film.(Like he should have be born a Gemini) While the film displays some great moments by Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner and a delightful ensemble cast it is the sheer energy of Glenn Ford which makes it hum along.
This remarkable comedy, a black comedy, has only an error: Glen Ford was a great actor, but the character needs a bit of madness, and Ford played so polite, so friendly.
An actor so remarkable in comedy as Carrey could do a great performance and a magnificent comedy based of the original play of this film.
Many people has forgotten The Gazebo, and thinks that is a romantic comedy.
I almost didn't watch this, because it sounded too much like a Doris Day/Rock Hudson type flick...which were great at the time, but seem so very dated now.
What I found was a genuinely funny and offbeat movie.The script moves along well in this black comedy (which also happens to be in black and white), and the principal actors do a fine job.
Glenn Ford is genuinely goofy (and I mean that in the best sense) here -- playing a rather neurotic television writer.
Debbie Reynolds is perfect as the wife...the subject of some nude photos when she was getting started...resulting in a blackmail plot; and I say that as no fan of Debbie Reynolds.
And John McGiver plays a very different part here, quite humorously.I actually chuckled out loud a couple of times here...something I rarely do, even when watching a comedy.
It's so rare to see Glenn Ford playing this type of role -- a nervous nelly who is clearly neurotic.
And, he does it so well!This film is certainly worth watching for a good hearty laugh.
The film concerns a couple (Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds).
Ford works like a dog and you soon learn that he's working so hard because he's paying off blackmailers--blackmailers that have nude photos of Debbie when she was younger.
Eventually Ford is so fed up with the never-ending blackmail that he decides to kill the blackmailer and hide the body in the foundation of the new gazebo.
But, while the killing seems to go off without a hitch, things only get worse after the evil deed was done.Killing, nude photos of Debbie and burying a body in the yard--all this is a very tough sell for audiences expecting to see a cute little film.
And, by trying so hard to make this a comedy, the film just doesn't quite work.
Nonetheless, in my book, the movie's only fitfully funny.Now, Glenn Ford wrote the book on effective low-key acting, a style adapting most readily to a droll brand of comedy, as in The Sheepman (1958).
Again, this is really tricky material to bring off successfully.I don't mean to imply the film doesn't have its moments or that players like McGiver and Reiner aren't amusingly droll or that the perky Reynolds isn't more restrained than usual.
Billed as a comedy, "The Gazebo" stars Glenn Ford as Elliott Nash, an overwrought writer who is no fun to be around, but for some reason his wife, Nell (played by Debbie Reynolds) is constantly smiling and affectionate, as if she is reacting to someone else.Elliott is the victim of a blackmailer.
What follows is hilarity, or at least it is supposed to be.I actually think Glenn Ford did a good job of acting, but he was miscast.
While watching, I kept thinking that if Dick Van Dyke or--better yet--Jack Lemmon had played his role, it would have actually been funny.Debbie Reynolds' role is minimal.
A television writer/director on the Bette of a nervous breakdown gets the shock of his life when his stage actress wife purchases a "summer house", aka "a gazebo" where she thinks he can spend beautiful summer days doing his writing.
There's also a friendly pigeon, an irony considering the dog like seagull from "This Happy Feeling" which also starred this films leading lady, Debbie Reynolds.
The real star is Glenn Ford, as dark as they come, but hysterically funny because of how far he's fallen into a neurotic/nervous breakdown state.I don't think that there was any need to give Debbie Reynolds a reason to do a production number, mainly because the one she does here is just a really bad number.
The blackmail plot involves lewd photos of Debbie, and that results in Glenn seeking to become the dumbest killer ever to plot a murder on screen.
Supporting them are Carl Reiner as Ford's dead pan pal, John McGiver as the most aggravating of contractors, so pompous and boring that while laughing at him for being like so many people you've been forced to deal with you might be cringing out of memory of those unpleasant encounters.
Black comedy, Hitchcock-like, from director George Marshall.
Directed by George Marshall, based on a story by Alec Coppel with a screenplay by George Wells, this slightly above average black comedy crime story is intricately written to cleverly tie everything together before its end, making for a satisfying entertaining film.Leads Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds are supported by Carl Reiner and John McGiver, as well as Bert Freed and Martin Landau (among others) in minor roles.
Two time Academy Award winner Helen Rose received her second to last Oscar nomination for her (B&W) Costume Design.Ford plays TV writer-director Elliot Nash; Reynolds plays his actress-singer wife Nell, who's just gotten her first big show on Broadway.
Reiner plays Harlow Edison, a New York district attorney that's a neighbor and longtime friend of the Nashs since before they were married; he'd always wanted Nell for himself.
Elliot also learns a couple of other pointers about the mythical perfect murder from Harlow.Even though the Nashs had recently bought a home in the (country?) suburbs as a quiet place for his writing, Elliot tries to convince Nell that they must sell it (in order for him to pay the blackmailer).
Elliot sees the gazebo's base as the best way to dispose of the blackmailer's body.