When a wealthy, lonely university music student is beaten and has his apartment trashed by a fellow dorm resident-bully and his gang, he goes mad, lures the bully into his room on pretense of forgiveness, slips him a paralyzing agent in a drink, throws him in a trunk and locks him in, and taunts the bully with the promise that he will be buried alive in the trunk. Only, once he gets his trunk and his prey to his country estate, the vengeful victim finds things keep going wrong...
Acting
Manning Whiley's unhinged civility as Bentley.
Direction
Boulting squeezes dread into every cramped frame.
Writing
The delicious irony of the 'perfect' plan unraveling.
Director
Roy Boulting
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Roy Boulting was only 24 when he directed this, already showing the sardonic edge that would define his later satires.
Pre-war British 'quota quickies' like this often smuggled dark psychology under B-movie crime premises—Design for Murder is a hidden gem of the form.
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