Diary of the Dead is a 1976 neo-noir film directed by Arvin Brown, based on the 1971 novel One Across, Two Down by Ruth Rendell.

Maud Kennaway's friend (and Vera's godmother), Ethel Dean (Kate Wilkinson), comes to visit, but Mrs. Patterson (Joyce Ebert)'s boarding house is not ready.

Unable to find her own pills, Ethel Dean uses some of Maud's now worthless ones, and dies on Stan's couch following a cardiac incident.

Stan tells the 911 operator that the deceased is Maud Kennaway, and Dr. Klein (Austin Pendleton) provides the necessary paperwork for her remains to be taken away for cremation.

He buries his mother-in-law in the backyard and plants the new tree he purchased some time earlier on top of her remains.