Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
Historical Moments, Small and Large:
Mrs. Henderson Presents and Glory Road
1-11-06 EXPANDED EDITION OF Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times column
by Richard Knight, Jr.
Mrs. Henderson Presents and Glory Road
1-11-06 EXPANDED EDITION OF Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times column
by Richard Knight, Jr.
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Judi Dench does it again in the perfect matinee fare,
a sports movie for gay men who hate sports movies
a sports movie for gay men who hate sports movies
When Judi Dench is in a movie, no matter the size of the part, it’s worth taking in just to see the eventual tongue lashing that
someone’s going to get. Never has a septuagenarian taken more relish in her ability to annihilate with a word or the flick of an
eyebrow (she even gives Elaine Stritch a run for the money). To hear her toss off a phrase like “Buzz off” is to encounter comedic
timing of the highest degree. Dench says that – and much more besides – in the delightful and not terribly taxing Mrs.
Henderson Presents.
Based on a true story, the film opens in 1937 at the funeral of Mrs. Henderson’s husband. We understand immediately from those
in attendance that Mr. Henderson was a man of wealth and respect. As Dench (playing the bereaved widow) leaves the cemetery she
orders her chauffeur to take another route and soon we find ourselves with her in a rowboat, oaring around in the middle of a lake
so that she can sob out her grief in private. Then it’s back to business. The no-nonsense Mrs. Henderson is already bored with
widowhood and confides to her best friend Lady Conway (Thelma Barlow) that she’s at a loss about what to do next. She tries Lady
Conway’s first two suggestions – embroidery and charity work – and finds both impossibly dull. But then during an afternoon drive
she spots a shuttered theatre and her imagination takes hold.
Soon, she’s brought the theatre, dubbed it The Windmill and hired an irascible manager, Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) after
insulting him with racial and social slurs. Van Damm insists on complete creative control and though Mrs. Henderson agrees, it’s only
Van Damm, apparently, who believes that she’ll keep to her word. She’s constantly about, offering up opinions on everything and
sitting in on auditions for the vaudeville revue that Van Damm wants to stage. He has the idea of running shows day and night –
like the American theatres – and this simple idea turns the Windmill’s initial offering into a big hit. But soon the other London
theatres are doing the same thing and business at the Windmill quickly falls off. Mrs. Henderson, in all seriousness, suggests that
they stage a revue in the nude. She lunches with Lord Cromer (a droll Christopher Guest in a straight part) and gets him to agree to
the outlandish idea. But the catch is that the performers must stand stock still – as if in an artistic “tableaux.” Then it’s time to find
the young, innocent ladies that will agree to bare all.
If this sounds like a vintage version of Calendar Girls or a variation on The Full Monty it should. Mrs. Henderson Presents mines
similar territory – like those films, the “shocking” nudity is merely the MacGuffin here, a reason to move the plot along. It’s really
the story of an aging rebel who finally comes into her own (thanks to a lot of money and a strong will). It’s also the contest of two
Type A personalities (Mrs. Henderson and Mr. Van Damm), the unrequited love of one for the other (again Mrs. Henderson who
blanches to learn that Mr. Van Damm is married) and a charming period piece. When England enters the war, the Windmill, with its
underground theatre, becomes a safe haven for the soldiers and Londoners and suddenly the shows take on a deeper meaning for
all involved – both on and offstage. By the fadeout we know that the nosy Mrs. Henderson will have learned from her mistakes, the
bossy Mr. Van Damm will have learned tolerance, the stiff Lord Cromer will have relented in his opposition to the nudie girls, and
Mrs. Henderson will have explained the importance of all of this (as Dench does in a beautiful last speech that acts as a proper
curtain call).
This is the first high profile feature director Stephen Frears has made since the terrific John Cusack comedy High Fidelity in 2000.
Mrs. Henderson Presents is another feather in the cap of this chameleon-like director whose films were hotly anticipated throughout the
latter half of the 80s ( they included The Grifters, Dangerous Liaisons and My Beautiful Laundrette) but less so after several missteps in
the 90s. A light comedy of this nature requires a delicate, assured touch and Frears provides it. As do Dench and Hoskins.
That’s not really surprising. For actors with as much technique at their disposal as these two, elevating a slight nostalgia piece like
this must have seemed like a bracing walk in the park. But that’s not to dismiss the pleasures of a light entertainment like this.
Helen Mirren and Julie Walters in Calendar Girls and Robert Carlyle and Tom Wilkinson in The Full Monty elevated those two comedies
in much the same manner. Both were superb examples of light entertainment, perfect fodder to perk up a dreary winter afternoon.
Mrs. Henderson Presents is another.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I am not a sports movie enthusiast and admittedly fall into the stereotype when it comes to these movies. I’m a gay man that
prefers melodramatic star vehicles, comedies, musicals, melodramas, and camp above all else. If I’m going to watch a movie with a
group of men dressed in uniforms playing sports you can be assured that those uniforms are going to come off at some point and
the dialogue and situations are going to get mighty suggestive.
So, it was with trepidation that I sat down to watch Glory Road, the true story of the first college basketball team to integrate and
introduce black players to the NCAA. Within moments, however, I found myself engrossed in this amazing story and the struggles
that real life college coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) had in putting this team together in 1966. It’s very much a root for the
underdog kind of picture – once Haskins gets over the hurdle of convincing the black players to come down to Texas and join his
team, there’s the hurdle of getting both the white and black players to accept one another. Not to mention the other students, the
townspeople and college officials. But against the odds, the team begins to pile up victories until it finally ends up in the playoffs
against a team led by the appallingly arrogant and transparently bigoted coach, Adolph Rupp (Jon Voight).
I am told that this is very much a by the numbers sports picture, similar in nature to Hoosiers, Miracle and many others. But I found
it intensely dramatic and moving and enthralling. At the film’s conclusion I turned to my partner to find him also wiping away a tear.
I can’t say that we’ll be adding many titles from the Netflix “Sports” category to our Queue anytime soon but familiar or not, if a
sports movie can make two middle aged gay men cry it's worth seeing.
someone’s going to get. Never has a septuagenarian taken more relish in her ability to annihilate with a word or the flick of an
eyebrow (she even gives Elaine Stritch a run for the money). To hear her toss off a phrase like “Buzz off” is to encounter comedic
timing of the highest degree. Dench says that – and much more besides – in the delightful and not terribly taxing Mrs.
Henderson Presents.
Based on a true story, the film opens in 1937 at the funeral of Mrs. Henderson’s husband. We understand immediately from those
in attendance that Mr. Henderson was a man of wealth and respect. As Dench (playing the bereaved widow) leaves the cemetery she
orders her chauffeur to take another route and soon we find ourselves with her in a rowboat, oaring around in the middle of a lake
so that she can sob out her grief in private. Then it’s back to business. The no-nonsense Mrs. Henderson is already bored with
widowhood and confides to her best friend Lady Conway (Thelma Barlow) that she’s at a loss about what to do next. She tries Lady
Conway’s first two suggestions – embroidery and charity work – and finds both impossibly dull. But then during an afternoon drive
she spots a shuttered theatre and her imagination takes hold.
Soon, she’s brought the theatre, dubbed it The Windmill and hired an irascible manager, Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) after
insulting him with racial and social slurs. Van Damm insists on complete creative control and though Mrs. Henderson agrees, it’s only
Van Damm, apparently, who believes that she’ll keep to her word. She’s constantly about, offering up opinions on everything and
sitting in on auditions for the vaudeville revue that Van Damm wants to stage. He has the idea of running shows day and night –
like the American theatres – and this simple idea turns the Windmill’s initial offering into a big hit. But soon the other London
theatres are doing the same thing and business at the Windmill quickly falls off. Mrs. Henderson, in all seriousness, suggests that
they stage a revue in the nude. She lunches with Lord Cromer (a droll Christopher Guest in a straight part) and gets him to agree to
the outlandish idea. But the catch is that the performers must stand stock still – as if in an artistic “tableaux.” Then it’s time to find
the young, innocent ladies that will agree to bare all.
If this sounds like a vintage version of Calendar Girls or a variation on The Full Monty it should. Mrs. Henderson Presents mines
similar territory – like those films, the “shocking” nudity is merely the MacGuffin here, a reason to move the plot along. It’s really
the story of an aging rebel who finally comes into her own (thanks to a lot of money and a strong will). It’s also the contest of two
Type A personalities (Mrs. Henderson and Mr. Van Damm), the unrequited love of one for the other (again Mrs. Henderson who
blanches to learn that Mr. Van Damm is married) and a charming period piece. When England enters the war, the Windmill, with its
underground theatre, becomes a safe haven for the soldiers and Londoners and suddenly the shows take on a deeper meaning for
all involved – both on and offstage. By the fadeout we know that the nosy Mrs. Henderson will have learned from her mistakes, the
bossy Mr. Van Damm will have learned tolerance, the stiff Lord Cromer will have relented in his opposition to the nudie girls, and
Mrs. Henderson will have explained the importance of all of this (as Dench does in a beautiful last speech that acts as a proper
curtain call).
This is the first high profile feature director Stephen Frears has made since the terrific John Cusack comedy High Fidelity in 2000.
Mrs. Henderson Presents is another feather in the cap of this chameleon-like director whose films were hotly anticipated throughout the
latter half of the 80s ( they included The Grifters, Dangerous Liaisons and My Beautiful Laundrette) but less so after several missteps in
the 90s. A light comedy of this nature requires a delicate, assured touch and Frears provides it. As do Dench and Hoskins.
That’s not really surprising. For actors with as much technique at their disposal as these two, elevating a slight nostalgia piece like
this must have seemed like a bracing walk in the park. But that’s not to dismiss the pleasures of a light entertainment like this.
Helen Mirren and Julie Walters in Calendar Girls and Robert Carlyle and Tom Wilkinson in The Full Monty elevated those two comedies
in much the same manner. Both were superb examples of light entertainment, perfect fodder to perk up a dreary winter afternoon.
Mrs. Henderson Presents is another.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I am not a sports movie enthusiast and admittedly fall into the stereotype when it comes to these movies. I’m a gay man that
prefers melodramatic star vehicles, comedies, musicals, melodramas, and camp above all else. If I’m going to watch a movie with a
group of men dressed in uniforms playing sports you can be assured that those uniforms are going to come off at some point and
the dialogue and situations are going to get mighty suggestive.
So, it was with trepidation that I sat down to watch Glory Road, the true story of the first college basketball team to integrate and
introduce black players to the NCAA. Within moments, however, I found myself engrossed in this amazing story and the struggles
that real life college coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) had in putting this team together in 1966. It’s very much a root for the
underdog kind of picture – once Haskins gets over the hurdle of convincing the black players to come down to Texas and join his
team, there’s the hurdle of getting both the white and black players to accept one another. Not to mention the other students, the
townspeople and college officials. But against the odds, the team begins to pile up victories until it finally ends up in the playoffs
against a team led by the appallingly arrogant and transparently bigoted coach, Adolph Rupp (Jon Voight).
I am told that this is very much a by the numbers sports picture, similar in nature to Hoosiers, Miracle and many others. But I found
it intensely dramatic and moving and enthralling. At the film’s conclusion I turned to my partner to find him also wiping away a tear.
I can’t say that we’ll be adding many titles from the Netflix “Sports” category to our Queue anytime soon but familiar or not, if a
sports movie can make two middle aged gay men cry it's worth seeing.