Cabaret (1972)

In 1931 Berlin, during the last days of the Weimar Republic, a young Brit (Michael York) moves into a shoddy boarding house where he meets an American party girl, Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), who sings in a cabaret. They eventually become lovers but as the rise of Nazism grows stronger around them, its corruption begins to poison everything around them. This marvelous Bob Fosse (direction and choreography) musical is one of the greatest musicals ever made. Fosse doesn't sugarcoat anything but neither does he nudge us to cluck our tongues at the decadence, he simply lays it all out for us to see. The tawdry atmosphere is compelling and one can see how one can be drawn in by the vulgarity and the brazenness of it all. Joel Grey as the master of ceremonies, with his pasty white make up and rouged cheeks and lips, positively reeks of dissipation. Minnelli and Grey deservedly won Oscars for their performances but Minnelli, as superb as she is, is miscast. Her performance as an actress is first rate but so is her singing which is all wrong. Sally is a third rate singer (non singers like Natasha Richardson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emma Stone and Jill Haworth have all played Bowles successfully on stage) who'll never become a Star but the way Minnelli plays it, she's dripping with charisma and has Star written all over her. Why is she wasting her time in a dive like this? The effective subplot features Fritz Wepper as a gigolo who attempts to seduce a wealthy Jewish heiress (Marisa Berenson). With Helmut Griem who turns the Minnelli/York romance into a menage a trois. The songs are by John Kander and Fred Ebb.