Television mystery writer and director Elliott Nash is blackmailed by Dan Shelby over nude photographs of his wife Nell, taken when she was 18 years old.

When a figure presumed to be the blackmailer shows up at the Nashes' suburban home to collect his latest payment, Elliott shoots him, wraps the body in bathroom shower curtains, then hides it in the concrete foundation being poured for the antique gazebo his wife has bought.

He struggles to keep Sam Thorpe, the contractor hired to install the structure, and Miss Chandler, the real estate agent trying to sell the Nashes' house, from stumbling across his scheme.

A doctor confirms that Joe actually died of a pre-existing heart problem, and Elliott's pet pigeon Herman, who he had been nursing back to health after an injury, flies off with the bullet, so no evidence ties him to the death.

[2] A comic subplot involves Alfred Hitchcock inadvertently assisting Elliott in a murder plan via telephone, while checking on a script Nash is writing for him.

John McGiver helps things along a wee bit...and Doro Merande's brazen screeches serve the purpose of piercing the lethargy occasionally.

But the rest of the cast is average, George Marshall's direction is flat and the black-and-white CinemaScope production is right off the warehouse racks.

[5] The Philadelphia Inquirer praised the film as "A whooped-up, spiced-up screen version of Alec Coppel's murder comedy....Scampering through the engaging nonsense under George Marshall's lively direction Ford has a field day as a frantic TV writer and director of whodunits who finds himself all thumbs when it comes to murder on his own Connecticut premises....George Wells' script embroiders brightly over the original play, providing fresh invention and...ample scope for sight gags, slapstick and amiable additions—including that extremely helpful piegon....'The Gazebo' offers both Ford and Miss Reynolds lively scope for their comic talents....Sturdy support is offered by...McGiver...Carl Reiner...Dora Merande...Others lending assistance in this cheerful Avon production are Mable Albertson, Bert Freed, Martin Landau and Richard Wessel.