Trunk Crime

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Trunk Crime
Trunk Crime film Opening titles (1939).jpg
Directed by Roy Boulting
Written by
Produced by John Boulting
Starring
Cinematography D.P. Cooper
Edited by
  • Clifford Boote
  • Roy Boulting
Music by Charles Brill
Production
company
Charter Film Productions
Distributed byAnglo-American Film Corporation
Release date
  • 25 September 1939 (1939-09-25)
Running time
60 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Trunk Crime (also known as Design for Murder [1] ) is a 1939 British thriller film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Manning Whiley, Barbara Everest and Michael Drake. [1] It was written by Francis Miller based on the 1937 play The Last Straw by Reginald Denham and Edward Percy.

Contents

Plot

Sensitive university student Bentley is bullied by his peers. After a particularly unpleasant attack he snaps and seeks revenge. Drugging the gangleader Grierson, he takes him in a trunk to his country cottage, planning to bury him alive in the marshes. While Bentley is away from the cottage Grierson is discovered and freed. He rues his callous actions towards Bentley.

Cast

Production

It was made at Elstree Studios as a quota quickie. [2] The film's sets were designed by Duncan Sutherland.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "It is a convincing and consistent story with a purpose. The settings are appropriate. The photography is often original, and certainly executed with imagination: the unbalanced condition of Bentley's mind being suggested, for instance, by shots taken from below and on a slant. The film is further enhanced by Manning Whiley's dramatic performance as Bentley, and indeed, by the fine acting of the whole cast. From an entertainment point of view it is exciting without being cheaply sensational." [3]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Though inclined to over-act at times, Manning Whiley does very well with an exacting part as Bentley. Barbara Everest's Ursula is a sympathetic and understanding study, and Hay Petrie contributes an amusing little cameo as a local character.  ... Story is theatrical in cenception and staging, and there is a great deal of dialogue, but within the limitations imposed on him the director has used his camera intelligently. Psychological aspects of the plot are not over-stressed, while the narrative holds attention by sheer force of its thriller content. :" [4]

Picturegoer wrote: "Morbid thriller which suffers from theatricality and a superfluity of dialogue." [5]

References

  1. 1 2 "Trunk Crime". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  2. ↑ Wood, Linda (1986). British Films, 1927–1939 (PDF). British Film Institute. p. 101. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2022.
  3. ↑ "Trunk Crime". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 6 (61): 68. 1 January 1939. ProQuest   1305804050.
  4. ↑ "Trunk Crime". Kine Weekly . 265 (1667): 31. 30 March 1939. ProQuest   2339728088.
  5. ↑ "Trunk Crime". Picturegoer . 9: 22. 5 September 1939. ProQuest   1771149701.
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