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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1960s
    Movies - 1960s Movies - D 2 Mins Read

    Decline and Fall . . . of a Birdwatcher (1968)

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    Paul Pennyfeather (Robin Phillips) is a naive young divinity student at Oxford 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 unsavoury employment agency who secure him a position at Llanabba Castle – a sleazy boys’ boarding school in Wales presided over by the colourful Dr Augustus Fagan (Donald Wolfit).

    The school’s staff are an assortment of eccentric characters: Mr Prendergast (Robert Harris) is a withdrawn former clergyman; Captain Grimes (Leo McKern) is a one-legged philanderer, pederast, bigamist and drunk with his eye on Fagan’s daughter; and Solomon Philbrick (Colin Blakely) is actually an undercover criminal posing as Fagan’s butler.

    Paul meets Margot Beste-Chetwynde (Genevieve Page) – the enchanting and manipulative mother of one of his pupils who has her Rolls Royce painted in a succession of different colours to match her gowns – and the pair are set to be married until Paul is arrested for involvement in Margot’s white slavery operation.

    Pennyfeather is convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison – where he meets several individuals who had also been academic colleagues at Llanabba Castle – but is released after a relatively short time with the help of Margot’s new husband, the British Home Secretary Sir Humphrey Maltravers (Griffith Jones).

    The film is an adaptation of the 1928 novel Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.

    Paul Pennyfeather
    Robin Phillips
    Judge
    Felix Aylmer
    Solomon Philbrick
    Colin Blakely
    Prendergast
    Robert Harris
    Maniac
    Patrick Magee
    Captain Grimes
    Leo McKern
    Margot Beste-Chetwynde
    Geneviève Page
    Chief Warder
    Paul Rogers
    Prison Governor
    Donald Sinden
    Dr Augustus Fagan
    Donald Wolfit
    Sir Humphrey Maltravers
    Griffith Jones
    Arthur Potts
    Rodney Bewes
    Flossie Fagan
    Patience Collier
    Otto Silenus
    Roland Curram
    Mr Church
    Kenneth Griffith

    Director
    John Krish

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