Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher is a 1968 British comedy film directed by John Krish and starring Robin Phillips, Geneviève Page and Donald Wolfit. It is an adaptation of the 1928 novel Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.
The film was made with a budget of $1,970,000. It was the final film role for Wolfit, who died on February 17, 1968.
Plot summary
Paul Pennyfeather is an Oxford divinity student who finds himself sent down after a group of drunken undergraduates remove his trousers and he is accused of exposing himself. Forced to look for work, he seeks the services of an employment agency who secure for him a position at a sleazy Welsh boys' boarding school, presided over by the colourful Dr. Fagan. The school's staff are an assortment of eccentric characters: Mr Prendergast, a withdrawn former clergyman; Captain Grimes, a one-legged philanderer with his eye on Fagan's daughter; and Solomon Philbrick, an undercover criminal posing as Fagan's butler.
Cast
Robin Phillips as Paul Pennyfeather
Donald Wolfit as Doctor Augustus Fagan
Geneviève Page as Margot Beste-Chetwynde
Colin Blakely as Solomon Philbrick
Felix Aylmer as Judge
Robert Harris as Prendergast
Leo McKern as Captain Grimes
Patrick Magee as Maniac
Donald Sinden as Prison Governor
Griffith Jones as Sir Humphrey Maltravers
Paul Rogers as Chief Warder
Rodney Bewes as Arthur Potts
Patience Collier as Flossie Fagan
Kenneth Griffith as Mr Church
Joan Sterndale-Bennett as Lady Circumference
Box office
According to Fox records the film required $3,100,000 in rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $1,475,000 so made a loss to the studio.