Senior liberation or exploitation in films?

What’s with naughty old-timers in movies lately?

In “Mrs. Henderson Presents,” recently widowed heiress Laura Henderson (Judi Dench) refuses to conclude her years in a flurry of charity functions, jewelry shopping and dull hobbies.

Instead she buys an old theater in London’s West End and stages all-nude musical revues, to the delight of 1930s English audiences and the shock of snooty Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest).

The movie, directed by Stephen Frears, seems to be merely the latest in an outpouring of movies -- British and American -- featuring ladies and gentlemen of a certain age on a nutty new tear.

Ever since the 1997 hit “The Full Monty,” in which six steelworkers, including an older fella, earn money by forming a striptease act, British filmmakers have been seeking ways to repeat that box office success. They seem to be grabbing at senior citizens to do so.

In 2003’s “Calendar Girls,” for example, the members of a women’s auxiliary bare all for a calendar spread that will raise money for cancer research. Old ladies act like teenagers, giggling and rolling around, after mistaking marijuana for tea leaves in 2000’s “Saving Grace.” And who can forget that wizened and completely naked Irishman (played by David Kelly) riding on his motorbike in 1998’s “Waking Ned Devine”?

American comedies are just as cavalier with the old, if not more so. In the recent release “Grandma’s Boy,” Shirley Jones (she of “The Partridge Family” fame) plays a promiscuous senior who hops into bed with a young man after recounting graphic tales of sexual liaisons in her youth. “Wedding Crashers,” a massive hit this past summer, features a foulmouthed woman (octogenarian Ellen Albertini Dow) who apparently knows how to rap with the best of ‘em. And in Curtis Hansen’s sister flick, “In Her Shoes,” an insufferable senior in tennis shoes (Francine Beers) produces an endless flow of one-liners, as if she’s tuning up for an upcoming Borscht Belt tour. We are supposed to laugh, in large part, because, you know, these women are crazy old codgers.

“Old people are often considered figures of fun,” says “Mrs. Henderson” scriptwriter Martin Sherman. “And isn’t it ‘cute’ that an old person is smoking pot? You never see movies about their sex lives or other emotional issues. It’s assumed they’ve given all that up. But most will tell you, they still feel 20 or 30 inside.”

Well, we don’t see Mrs. Henderson’s sex life either. But Mrs. H., who is based on a real character, is rich and empowered and doesn’t have to do any doffing. She retains her dignity.

The movie’s Mrs. Henderson is “a sparky, lively lady,” not a figure of fun, because of the script and the way Dench plays her, Frears says.

This brings up an essential difference between the English and American movies: The Denches, Maggie Smiths and Helen Mirrens who frequently show up in these films are just as comfortable performing Ibsen and Shakespeare as silly capers. British actors, in general, have a higher pedigree and enjoy long-standing, distinguished careers on stage, television and film. Inevitably, they make even the silliest roles even better than the script.

This doesn’t stop the guilty pandering, of course. “Mrs. Henderson” was surely made because of its saucy premise -- spunky old dame puts on naked show -- rather than Dench’s acting abilities (which earned her an Academy Award nomination for the role). And even though the performances in Brit films are usually authoritative, it doesn’t stop that faint whiff of exploitation.