Gazebo The (1959) – full review!

Directed by George Marshall based on a story by Alec Coppel (The Captain’s Paradise (1953)) with a screenplay by George Wells (Designing Woman (1957)) 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. Elliot is an extremely nervous individual because unbeknownst to Nell he’s being blackmailed by Dan Shelby (Stanley Adams uncredited voice) who has a compromising (if innocent) photograph of her husband in his hotel room with a secretary that was taking dictation for him. 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. One evening Harlow wheedles his way home with the Nashs whereupon Elliot tries to get rid of him so that he and his wife can have carnal relations. Elliot decides to ask Harlow about a hypothetical situation involving blackmail ostensibly for a script he’s writing. One of Harlow’s ideas involves bumping off the criminal which Elliot takes to heart even though he’s such a gentle man that he’d saved and adopted a pigeon earlier. 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). But Nell is nesting she’s just purchased the titled gazebo at an estate sale and is having a country contractor named Sam Thorpe (McGiver) install it complete with a concrete base. Elliot sees the gazebo’s base as the best way to dispose of the blackmailer’s body. Mabel Albertson plays the real estate agent Elliot hired to sell their house which he’d begun booby-trapping to ‘force’ Nell to consider selling it. Doro Merande plays the Nash’s loud talking housekeeper (a trait which is utilized later for practical if not comical purposes). Armed with Harlow’s information Elliot arranges a final meeting and payment with Shelby at the Nash home; he even types out instructions for himself so that he won’t forget anything.

Of course all won’t go according to plan. Comedic (slapstick) sequences follow which include Elliot negotiating with his dying victim to land on the tarp he’d put down to prevent carpet stains Thorpe showing up to fill in the whole and take the shovel Alfred Hitchcock calling to suggest how Elliot should solve this new problem Elliot learning that Shelby was NOT the man he’d killed & buried and trying to find out if he’d accidentally killed a friend or relative rain which compromises the integrity of the cement used to make the gazebo’s base two hoods (Landau and Dick Wessel) that kidnap Nell to find out what her husband did with the body of the dead man and his briefcase filled with money the booby-trapped house making things difficult throughout Elliot confessing his crime to Nell and both having to deal with the body Harlow and police Lieutenant Jenkins (Bert Freed) arriving just in time to catch and accuse the murderer but Elliot then figuring out that he didn’t actually shoot Shelby’s assistant (the dead man) and his pigeon absconding with the bullet evidence so that all ends well for the couple.

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