Cabaret (1972)

Cabaret (1972)

This Bob Fosse-directed musical – based on the Tony Award winning Harold ‘Hal’ Prince-directed Broadway production – features career performances from Liza Minnelli (The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)) and Joel Grey both of whom won Academy Awards for their work: Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively. Grey had also won a Tony as did Prince and for the movie Fosse took home the gold. The film won Oscars for its Art Direction-Set Decoration Cinematography Editing Musical Score (featuring the title song “Willkommen” and “Money Money” among others) and Sound and was nominated for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay. #5 on AFI’s 25 Greatest Movie Musicals list. "Cabaret" is #18 on AFI’s 100 Top Movie Songs of All Time. Added to the National Film Registry in 1995.

Minnelli plays Sally Bowles an American singer – that wants to be an actress – of the seedy Kit Kat Klub in pre-World War II Berlin a city of decadence and immorality shortly before the Nazi Party rises to power. She befriends Brian Roberts (Michael York) a poor British writer who’s just come to town and the two agree to share a flat. She’s lonely but their relationship is platonic at least at first. Grey is the flamboyant Emcee at the nightclub. Another friend of Sally’s is Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper) who’s desperately trying to learn proper English – from Brian – and falls for a wealthy Jewish heiress Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson). Shortly after Sally and Brian fall in love with each other a rich married playboy named Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem) ‘adopts’ them “for kicks” and that’s when their relationship troubles begin.

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