Mrs. Henderson knows nothing about running a music hall, so she enlists the help of mischievous producer Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) to run the operation, and the two of them prove to be polar opposites in class, opinion and vision but perfectly in ego and energy. Their acerbic barbs hurled at one another are a delight to watch. Van Damm’s idea is to run a revue all hours of the day, and the concept bringing instant success, for a while. Unfortunately, their success spawns copycat revues and other West End competitors, so as audiences start to shrink, it is Mrs. Henderson who enthusiastically presents the idea of a nude production.

Henderson outmaneuvers the objections of the Lord Chamberlain (Christopher Guest), the local censor who succumbs to her charms. They reach a compromise in that the nude women are not allowed to move while on stage, thereby skirting around the draconian English censorship laws. The unique statuesque staging becomes the talk of London that gave laughs and titillation to a country that was starved for amusement during WWII.

Based on a true story (there really was a Laura Henderson who built The Windmill into a successful theater using nude actresses), the film takes the usual movie liberties with the facts by compressing timelines and consolidating the number of people who were involved. But doing so helps the pace of movie and keeps the audience involved throughout.

As directed by Stephen Frears ("The Grifters," "Dirty Pretty Things"), "Mrs. Henderson" is a broad farcical comedy, tinged with tragedy that sometimes threatens to tip into melodrama but then he pulls us back just in a nick of time. Likewise, screenwriter Martin Sherman ("Bent") captures the independence and determination of the main character as a lady who may be perfectly dressed and refined but also who can get down and dish out the raunchy language (Dench spitting out a popular slang word for female genitalia) when required.

Dench gives a rousing defense of unashamed nudity-as-a-civil-liberty that all nudists should write down and memorize.

There is also a very funny quick moment of full frontal nudity from Bob Hoskins. In another brilliant piece of casting, Kelly Reilly ("Pride & Prejudice") gives the film a needed kick of spunky sultriness, as Maureen, one of the Windmill’s “nude cuties.” Pop idol winner Will Young makes an appealing big screen debut as Bertie, the theater's resident male ingénue, who tells Henderson that he's "of the other persuasion." Expect to see Oscar nominations for both Dame Judi and Bob Hoskins.

Frears also has a grand old time staging the musical numbers (including Benny Goodman's Goody Goody and the classically jaunty Babies of the Blitz), adding a theatrical spark to the film when the script starts to get too dark as wartime London endures tension and panic of The Blitz. In truth, The Windmill entered history ("We never closed") as the only London theatre to stay open throughout the war, including the Blitz.

Towards the film's end, Laura poignantly reveals why she had the idea for removing the actresses’ clothes. Knowing that, and seeing the reason why she made frequent pre-war visits to France, it's particularly sad when the film ends before the Allied victory and the final credits reveal that Henderson died in 1944. She left The Windmill to Vivian, who ran it until his death in 1960.

Mrs. Henderson Presents may be old-fashioned, but it's also witty, and lots of fun. It is a thoroughly charming and unpretentious film about a little piece of London theatre history. It probably won't make it out of the art houses, but see it if you can. And if you can’t find it in a theater, this is definitely one to rent when it comes out on DVD.