 is a 1969 American neo noir thriller film directed by Lee H. Katzin with Bernard Girard (uncredited), and starring Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Fuller and Mildred Dunnock.The screenplay by Theodore Apstein, based on the novel "The Forbidden Garden" by Ursula Curtiss, focuses on an aging Arizona widow who hires elderly female housekeepers and cons them out of their money before murdering them.The music score was by Gerald Fried and the cinematography by Joseph F. Biroc.