On this day in movie history - Diary of the Dead (1976 movie & novel):

Diary of the Dead

directed by Arvin Brown,

written by I.C. Rapoport and Robert L. Fish,

based on the novel One Across, Two Down by Ruth Rendell,

was released in the United States in October 1976.
Exact release date unknown.
Music by Jacques Urbont.

Cast:

Hector Elizondo, Edward Binns, Joyce Ebert, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Salome Jens, Laurie Kennedy, Joseph Maher, James Naughton, Austin Pendleton, George Spalding, Richard Venture, Lee Wallace, Kate Wilkinson.

Recommended reading:

One Across, Two Down

By Ruth Rendell.

Filmed as Diary of the Dead (1976), directed by Arvin Brown.

Published by Vintage Crime / Black Lizard.

First published 1971.

ASIN: 0375704949

ISBN-10: 9780375704949

ISBN-13: 978-0375704949

Description:

Two things interest Stanley Manning: crossword puzzles, and the substantial sum his wife Vera stands to inherit when his mother-in-law dies. Otherwise, life at 61 Lanchester Road is a living hell. For Mrs. Kinaway lives with them now – and she will stop at nothing to tear their marriage apart. One afternoon, Stanley sets aside his crossword puzzles and changes all their lives forever...

In One Across, Two Down, master crime writer Ruth Rendell describes a man whose strained sanity and stained reputation transform him from a witless loser into a killer afraid of his own shadow.  Mischievously plotted, smart, maddeningly entertaining, One Across, Two Down is a dark delight – classic Rendell.

"The best mystery writer in the English-speaking world." – Time.