Luddy Dublin has spent thirty years in a Nashville mental hospital, after murdering her domineering mother, who mutilated her while she was young and pregnant in 1943. Now released, she finds a new home at the sprawling plantation of Delilah Charles, the wheelchair-bound matriarch of an internecine household which includes philanthropist (and heroin addict) Alonzo, failed financier Morgan, alcoholic daughter Grace, and a host of others all impatient for Delilah to die so they can get their hands on her money. This "deathwatch" has been going on for two years, and Delilah shows no signs of expiring. At a grand dinner she announces she has modified her will to bequeath each of them no more than five thousand dollars, when the estate is worth millions. Then she exhibits some moldering currency and reveals she has discovered the hiding place of her late husband's "racing money" from the 1930s -- $600,000-worth. She found this legendary sum -- her family believes -- because she is dotty; they've seen her speaking to her husband's ghost via an imposing oil painting of him which hangs in her chambers. Soon enough the competition for the hidden money begins, and bodies start piling up. In the stable. In the smokehouse. In the pool. In an unmarked grave in the yard. In the family crypt. And all the murders have been committed by someone with an axe -- the same weapon Luddy used to kill her mother. But even though the real killer is trying his or her damndest to implicate her, Luddy knows she is no longer insane ... especially when she becomes the final target.

Agnes Moorehead

Delilah Charles

Dennis Patrick

Alonzo

Anne Gibbs

Young Luddy

Patricia Carmichael

Luddy Dublin

Elizabeth Eis

Ellen

Michael Ansara

Morgan

Ruth Baker

Buffy

Will Geer

Ray Jurroe

Anne Meacham

Grace

Robert Gentry

Richard

John Marriott

Marshall

Written and Directed by

John Farris

Produced by

Jack Clement

Associate Producer

Susan Richardson

Edited by

Ron Dorfman

Art Director

James Tilton

Costume Designer

Nancy Potts

Music by

Bill Justis

Director of Photography

William R. Johnson

Assistant Cameramen

Wilson Hong

John Packwood

Sound

Robert Janus

Gaffer

Murray Cohen

Unit Manager

Michael Kenner

Music Coordinator

David Davis

Music Editor

Ken Johnson

Assistant Film Editor

April Hird

Sound Mixer

Al Gramaglia

Production Manager

Fred Carmichael

Assistant to the Producer

Tilla Marshall

Script Continuity

Phyllis Restaino

Makeup

Vincet Loscalzo

Hairdresser

William Chiarelli

Wardrobe

Clifford Capone

Stunt Coordinator

Alex Stevens

Casting Assistant

John Murray

Technical Advisor

K. Baker