THE SCOOP...

Any murder mystery featuring a pigeon named Herman can be trusted to offer more mirth than mayhem and that is the case with this upbeat film by director George Marshall. Glenn Ford stars as Elliott Nash, a television playwright happily married to Nell Nash (Debbie), a celebrated Broadway entertainer. Nell had an ignominious moment in her past when she posed for some risqué photos best left in obscurity and now her husband is being blackmailed by the owner of the photos. 

Glenn Ford's solution to this embarrassing problem is to carry out a carefully executed murder and then bury the body beneath a charming gazebo being constructed in the backyard. Although the dastardly deed goes off without a hitch, the body of the blackmailer turns up elsewhere, leaving Elliott to track down who it was he buried under the gazebo!

Director George Marshall pulls stellar performances from co-stars Carl Reiner, John McGiver, Doro Meraqnde, and Martin Landau - not to mention Herman the Pigeon, who starts off the opening titles in his quirky animated form.  This offbeat comedy, intended as a comedic take on Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, was released in the winter of 1959 to popular acclaim and ultimately earned designer Helen Rose an Oscar nomination for her inspired costumes.  All this, as well as a jazzy musical number by Debbie as Nell Nash in her song-and-dance stage performance of Walter Kent and Walton Farrar's "Something Called Love".  

They're Having a Little Trouble With Her Gazebo... but doesn't EVERYONE!