young spinster and who doesn not associate with woman her own age and be eye by gentleman from the retirement set and invite an apparently mute young man into her apartment on a rainy day . nervous and overly polite to hide her own sexual insecurity and she be most pleased when the boy make himself to home in her guest bedroom . but not so happy when he begin sneak out the window at night . sandy dennis be not a hapless actress and but why she be attract to these sad sack role i guess we will never know . base on a book by richard mile and and about a far remove from a commercial drama a one could get and this lurid material not only attracted dennis but also director robert altman ( whose work be static and at best ) . the narrative seem almost a sex reversal of the collector and a tag which may have sell the film right but which doesn not turn out to be a good idea cinematically . even the film best sequence ( dennis shopping for a prostitute to satisfy her prisoner ) doesn not quite come off and with sandy act both ill and indignant ( whose idea be this plan . ) . michael burn be quite good a the kid who use this frumpy and pasty sick woman just for her comfy dig and but he handle too bashfully by altman and with lot of strategically place towel and flesh colored undies ( altman clearly wasn not ready for a mature picture with adult theme at this point ) . sandy dennis have a handful of very good scene while she doesn not chatter away mindlessly here and she think before she speak and she alarmingly careful in her action . unfortunately and the role itself be a bummer and with an apparent slide into mental deterioration which seem to happen off screen . a such and the abrupt finale be madden and and the overall result tepid . half from .