Decline and Fall… of a Birdwatcher ** (1968, Robin Phillips, Genevieve Page, Donald Wolfit, Colin Blakely, Patience Collier Leo McKern, Kenneth Griffith, Rodney Bewes) – Classic Movie Review 6331

Director John Krish’s 1968 comedy is a dodgy, unstylish film of Evelyn Waugh’s masterwork satirical (partly autobiographical) novel, now unfortunately updated to the Swinging Sixties, hence is alternate title of Decline and Fall… of a Birdwatcher. Alas the tone is all wrong and subtlety is chucked out of the window. The humour is too broad and the film ends up too much like a typical Brit sex comedy of the era.

Waugh’s story, filtered through the screenplay of Ivan Foxwell (the film’s producer, credited for adaptation), Alan Hackney and Hugh Whitemore (both credited for additional scenes), centres on an Oxford undergraduate (Robin Phillips) who is expelled (sent down) from the university and is hired to teach a boy by a lady criminal, Margot Beste-Chetwynde (Genevieve Page), whom he falls for.

Robin Phillips is personable but gives only a so-so performance as the hero, Paul Pennyfeather, while the satire on English society hardly works at all, especially out of its Twenties setting. But some of the film is fairly amusing as farce, and there are the usual entertaining British character turns by a large number of extremely welcome Sixties comedy worthies and serious actors too, especially Donald Wolfit as Dr Augustus Fagan and Leo McKern as Captain Grimes, Colin Blakely as Solomon Philbrick, Patience Collier and Rodney Bewes, who plays Arthur Potts.

Also in the cast are Michael Elwyn as Alastair Vane-Trumpington, Norman Scace as the Dean, Kenneth Griffith, Roland Curram, Griffith Jones, Jeremy Child,  Marne Maitland, Duncan Lamont, Felix Aylmer, Victor Maddern, Donald Sinden, Paul Rogers, Robert Harris, George Pravda and Patrick Magee (as Maniac).

It is remade as a TV mini-series in 2017 with Jack Whitehall as Paul Pennyfeather, David Suchet as Dr Fagan, Eva Longoria as Margot Beste-Chetwynde, Douglas Hodge as Grimes and Stephen Graham.

Robin Phillips moving to Canada in 1974 and became a distinguished theatre director. He died on July 25, 2015, aged 73. He is also known for Tales from the Crypt (1972) and Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6331

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