Unable to find success with her novels, Grafton turned to screenplays. Grafton worked for the next 15 years writing screenplays for television movies, including "Sex and the Single Parent"; "Mark, I Love You"; and "Nurse". Grafton sold the movie rights for "The Lolly-Madonna War" and co-wrote the screenplay for the feature film. The adaptation, released in 1973 as "Lolly-Madonna XXX", starred Rod Steiger and Jeff Bridges. Her screenplay for "Walking Through the Fire" earned a Christopher Award in 1979. In collaboration with her husband, Steven Humphrey, she also adapted the Agatha Christie novels "A Caribbean Mystery" and "Sparkling Cyanide" for television and co-wrote "A Killer in the Family" and "Love on the Run". She is credited with the story upon which the screenplay for the made for TV movie "Svengali" (1983) was based.