Die Nervensäge

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.

A story that twists and turns it's way through some good laughs. 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. The overall feeling is a bit stagy at times, giving heed to it's Broadway beginnings, but still effective as a movie. There's a little comical tribute to "Hitch" in there that works quite well too. This early 60's film is still worth watching. 7/10.

I can't say too many good things about this extremely well done black comedy. 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. Also of note is the fine bit by the venerable character actor John McGiver as Thorpe, the contractor. The plot keeps you going and the comic action never slips. I like also the decision to film it in black and white; it just looks right. As it is a wide-screen production, catching it in letterbox helps. A not-well-known film that is a nice comic surprise!

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. Although the humor is more smile-and-chuckle than laugh-out-loud, THE GAZEBO is a well made, well acted, and quite enjoyable. Recommended.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I remembered this movie from when I would sit on my moms lap and watch Sunday afternoon movies with her. 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.