Mrs. Henderson Presents, directed by Stephen Frears, is a biopic about Laura Henderson (played by Judi Dench), who buys the derelict Windmill Theatre in the Piccadilly section of London after her husband dies, restores the interior, and hires out-of-work Vivian Van Damm (played by Bob Hoskins) to manage a musical review. Indeed, he is hired when she realizes, despite his unemployed status, that he refuses to be cowed by her importunate demeanor. When the film begins, Mrs. H is at her husband's funeral in 1937. Not knowing what to do as a widow, she gets advice from Lady Conway (played by Thelma Barlow) to take up a hobby. Embroidering, one of her ideas, proves to be too boring for Mrs. H. Another piece of advice is to buy things; after all, a rich widow need no longer be concerned with the attitude of her husband when she goes on a shopping spree. Then after visiting her son's grave in Normandy, she decides to buy the Windmill, knowing nothing about how to manage a theatre. One effect is to employ females who badly need work in the depth of the Great Depression, though the auditions prove that good performers are hard to find. Van Damm hires as his assistant Bertie (played by Will Young), an openly gay singer-dancer who is a good judge of talent. Accordingly, the musical review is such a smash hit that other theatres copy the format, whereupon attendance flags at the Windmill. What to do? Mrs. H's answer to have naked girls, something never done before on the London stage. To do so requires approval from Lord Cromer, the Lord Chamberlain (played by Christopher Guest), whom she happens to know on a personal basis, as her late husband was a high official in the colonial government in India. She then prepares a sumptuous lunch for the Lord Chamberlain, during which he remarks that nudity would be permitted only if the girls were to remain still, similar to the nudes in art galleries. Mrs. H has approval, in other words, and the Windmill soon recovers financially. Mrs. H and VD, meanwhile, have been getting along famously. At the premier performance of the naked girls, she meets a very demure Mrs. Van Damm, of whom she was previously unaware. Mrs. H is so nonplussed that she is not only rude to her but also swears that she will never go to the theatre again. In time, however, she relents. The arrival of World War II to London in the form of aerial bombardments means that most London theatres close, but the Windmill is underground and thus can serve as a bombshelter, so the performances continue. Now Mrs. H seems particularly joyful while observing army boys attending the shows and enjoying the bodies on stage. At one point, when the authorities are on the verge of closing the Windmill due to the war, she reveals an important secret that has all along motivated her to own a theatre and to have naked women on display. A title at the end indicates that she died in 1944, leaving the theatre in her will to Van Damm. The film is nearly a musical, with much singing and dancing, though none of the numbers are completed, thus giving promise of a later stage musical if Andrew Lloyd Webber decides to work on a bit of rewriting and composing. However, what is most memorable about the film is that peels of laughter will rock a cinema as the repartee between Mrs. H and VD involves clever lines (reminiscent of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy) in which Mrs. H's brutal candor cuts to the quick in a most British manner. Mrs. H, in any case, is to be celebrated for being the first to bring the Victorian age to an end in the London theatre, whereas the Motion Picture Association of America's R rating to the film panders to an America still trapped in that bygone era. MH
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