Mrs. Henderson Presents

A rousing tale of glitz, rude bits and wartime blitz, Mrs Henderson Presents tells the true story of the Windmill Theatres. When Laura Henderson (Judi Dench) becomes a widow she finds her life awash with newfound boredom... a fellow widor explains to her that she's now allowed to have hobbies, but Mrs Henderson finds that her high finances and wordly ways make her unsuited to the usual widow-passtimes. So she decides to open her own theatre, and hires Jewish showbiz guru Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) to run it. Against his better judgement, Van Damm agrees to become her partner and gets a lot more than he bargained for. Initially the theatre is envisioned as a venue for around-the-clock productions but soon this innovation is copied by competing theatres, so Mrs Henderson hits upon the controversial idea of putting naked women on the stage - something that most theatres in the late 1930s are simply unwilling to do.

Kicking off with a gorgeously colourful and nostalgic animated introduction, Stephen Frears uses soft-focus like an old Hollywood film and gives the film a warm and pleasant colour palette to match the new beginning Mrs Henderson experiences in the wake of her husband's death. In some respects the gawdy and glossy tone makes it feel a little fake or budget-BBC, but it feels like a conscious decision on Frears' part (after all, he was responsible for the rather noirish film version of The Grifters) and it fits the subject matter. What starts out as a story of pushing the boundaries becomes something more stirring and meaningful as London begins to experience the Blitz, with the Windmill Theatres resolutely refusing to be cowed by the bombing. Mrs Henderson initially sees the theatre as a plaything but it grows into something more as she invests time and emotions on the people who help her run it, and her moving speech towards the end of the film ties together the themes of nudity and wartime in a way that makes sense of her motivations and adds dimension to her characters.

Dench is fantastic as Mrs Henderson, it's a lighter role that lets her give a gentler, more tongue-in-cheek performance than usual. She's charmingly rude and girlish, obviously having a lot of fun with all the double-entendres and euphemisms. Her character is very much a broadminded high-society expat who has returned to England from overseas to find she is ahead of the times. Hoskins holds up the rest of the film as the ambitious and bristly Vivian Van Damm, modifying his usual cockney accent into something a bit plummier and oldboy-establishment. It's also great to see Christopher Guest as well, he doesn't get cast in projects of this calibre nearly as often as he should.

It's not the greatest film in the world and at times it can feel a little too episodic, but it's funny, entertaining and quite darn charming.

DIRECTOR: Stephen Frears
SOURCE/WRITER: Martin Sherman, based on the true story of the Windmill Theatre.
KEY ACTORS: Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Kelly Reilly, Will Young, Christopher Guest, Thelma Barlow

RELATED TEXTS:
- There have been three other films about the Windmill Theatre... Tonight and Every Night was a 1940s wartime drama starring Rita Hayworth, it changes a lot of the details and names but is still based on the true story. Murder at the Windmill was made in 1949, and though it features the Windmill and it's performers it doesn't really have much to do with the story behind the theatre's origins. The third film was Secrets of a Windmill Girl, made in 1966.
- The Harmonists is a late 90s German film that tells the true story of a popular German-Jewish music hall act operating in the early days of WWII.
- Director Stephen Frears has also explored 20th century British history in the films The Deal and The Queen.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominated Best Actress (Judi Dench) and Best Costume Design.
BAFTAs - nominated for Best Film Music, Best Costume Design, Best Actress (Dench) and Best Original Screenplay.
Golden Globes - nominated Best Actress - Comedy/Musical (Dench), Best Comedy Film and Best Supporting Actor (Bob Hoskins)