Throughout the 1930s and '40s, London's Windmill Theatre was infamous for being the only spot in town to feature nude women on stage and renowned for never closing throughout the Second World War. This modest legacy is edified beyond belief by director Stephen Frears in Mrs Henderson Presents, a needless hurrah for a lurid institution that would have us believe its nude attractions actually helped win the War. All the theatre and the women ever really stood for was lust, music, and money - and if it can be believed, this film stands for even less.

Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins play Laura Henderson and Vivian Van Damm, the fallow proprietors of the Windmill and its notorious "Revudeville." Like a ruddy yet quaintly cantankerous McCabe & Mrs. Miller, both of them are brought together strictly out of business and enjoy uninterrupted prosperity once they discover they can lure patrons away from competitors by adding nude women to their revues. Later, as World War II breaks out and air raids become commonplace in London, the Windmill begins offering respite to its soldiers. The fact that she is financing the entire theatre notwithstanding, the idea to feature nudes is Mrs Henderson's only "artistic" contribution as she entrusts all creative and managerial matters to the more seasoned Van Damm. Little more than this is revealed about them though, and it is a credit to Dench and Hoskins that they stretch the limits of believability as far as they go. Hoskins in particular is the film's purest delight for his cartoonish bloody'ell pugilism. It is puzzling why two such gifted and respected actors attached themselves to the film, however, when from the very beginning it so obviously can't wait to disrobe and flaunt its true stars. Frears very nearly trips over himself trying to set up the film's premise to the point where every aspect of the characters that matters is suppressed for the sake of titties.

We almost didn't have this movie, though. Had Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest), whose jurisdiction included the entertainment business, not apprised Mrs Henderson of a certain loophole in displaying nude women, the Windmill might verily have fallen to shambles. So long as the nudes remained absolutely still on stage they could be regarded as legitimate art rather than exemplars of vulgarity. As such, each of the theatre's revues feature decorative tableaux adorned with the women as their centrepiece, which the film features in full. While they are ravishing to behold, bless their hearts, the film sees fit to only focus on Maureen (Kelly Reilly), ignoring the rest even though the existence of the theatre and the film depend upon them. Their singular dimensionality reeks of exploitation, and the option to single out Maureen for no apparent reason other than she's the most classically beautiful of the bunch is shameful and shallow tokenism since she too is made to lack volition and drive of her own. The film validates the male audience's festishization of the naked female body by playfully and ever-so-tweely doing the same.

Mrs Henderson has a well-meaning, if not insipidly repugnant, reason for hosting her nude revue. Her son, you see, died young in the First World War without ever having seen a naked woman in the flesh. The most he had was a lifeless nudie postcard. So sad was this - because one's fulfillment hinges on carnal thrills - that she offers her women to a new generation of soldiers so they may die having lived a richer life. Forgiving her such a flimsy purpose for a show and her ridiculous and base reducitivism, the film is further detached because its audience doesn't even get the benefit of live nude women. All filmgoers have is a postcard of a sensational aspect of Britain's rich and storied history. The Windmill was little more than a peep show masquerading as art, and to this effect Mrs Henderson Presents is positioned as a credible achievement when it is itself a thinly veiled cinematic peep show.

(Mrs Henderson Presents is currently playing at the Empire 8, Trinity Cinemas, located at 125 Trinity Drive in Moncton.)