Cabaret Review

 Number 410 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1972 musical period-drama 'Cabaret.'

Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is a free-spirited cabaret singer in 1931 Berlin. She forms an unlikely friendship with the upright and repressed English teacher Brian Roberts (Michael York.) Meanwhile, the shadow of Nazi Germany looms large overhead.

It's safe to say that Cabaret swept the 1973 Oscars. it was nominated for ten awards and won no less than eight including Best Score, Best Actress for Liza Minnelli and Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey - who played the compere of Sally's club. It lost the Best Picture award to the second Godfather film.

Strangely, despite his co-stars winning, Michael York wasn't even nominated. To me, this smells like a snub as egregious as Audrey Hepburn and My Fair Lady. You'll nominate Cabaret for virtually every other Oscar going, but NOT Michael York for Best Actor? It doesn't make sense. I'm not sure he would have won - would anybody beat Marlon Brando in the Godfather, but to not even be nominated...

York was very good as the stoically repressed Brian Roberts who was slowly undone by the carefree Sally. I wouldn't describe Brian as a brutish, emotionally shutdown cinnamon swirl, but rather an uptight, stick in the mud. He is also a deeply conflicted man holding a dark secret.

Minnelli was also very good as Sally Bowles embodying the best of Audrey Hepburn's airheaded characters. However, there was more to Sally Bowles than meets the eye. All of this was played against the backdrop of the rise of Nazi Germany. We receive subtle clues, but the early brutalities of the regime were cleverly alluded to rather than being shown outright.

Musicals like Cabaret might not be for everyone - they're not for me, but the Academy certainly loved it. Just not enough to nominate Michael York for an acting Oscar...