The film Cabaret is a dramatic musical based on the Broadway stage

musical of the same name. The plot varies significantly from the original
Broadway show but follows the same premise of Nazi growth in Berlin
during the 1930s. The show focuses on Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), a
grandiose American performer at a cabaret, the Kit Kat Klub, and Brian
Williams (Michael York), a British tourist who moves to Berlin to teach
English. The Master of Ceremonies (Joel Gray) plays a smaller role in
the show but ultimately leads the movie through imagery and allusions
to the blatant ignorance of the German community to the motives of the
Nazi regime, including Sally. The film begins welcoming you to the
cabaret and offering all the amenities it has to offer (primarily women
and entertainment). Brian finds lodgings in the same building as Sally
and the two begin a relationship first as friends and then something
more. Soon after the two begin a romantic relationship, Sally befriends a
rich baron, Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem), who seduces both
Sally and Brian through words and gifts. After successfully sleeping
with both Sally and Brian, Heune leaves. Tension rises between the
couple and both reveal they had sex with Max, which leads them to
reconcile.
A couple months later, Sally reveals she is pregnant and Brian offers to
marry Sally and take her back to London. But the celebration is short
lived when Brian begins to seem distant and uninterested in Sally. This
causes Sally to reflect on her possible life with Brian and a baby. She
ultimately has an abortion without telling Brian. She confronts Brian,
who is upset at first, but they reach an understanding and he returns back
in London while Sally continues her career at the Kit Kat Club singing
the song Cabaret with an interesting lyric What good's permitting
some prophet of doom? / To wipe every smile away. This song ties in,
heavily, with the notion that they, the German people, do not need to
hear the horrible whispers of the Nazis doings, keep your ears shut and
smiles wide. The movie ends at the Kit Kat Klub and the MC reprising
the Willkommen, but slower and sloppier. Scenes flash across the
screen of ignorant bliss of the performers. The club is now filled with
Nazis who have replaced the usual customers at the beginning of the
movie, ending on an officers swastika armband.
Though the musical follows the ups and downs of Sally and Brians
relationship. The true meaning behind every little thing that happens in
this film musical is because of the strain and tension placed upon
everyone from the Nazis. A turning point in the movie is when Brian and
Max seek out a beer garden and a boy, who belongs to Hitlers Youth,
beings singing the song Tomorrow Belongs to Me. The song starts out
as admiring the beauty of Germany but soon grows to a hysteric and
vicious song as more and more people lend their voices to the boy who
holds up his hand in salute to Hitler. This leads Max and Brian to leave
the garden before things get worse. Another event is a small subplot
Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper), who befriends Briand and Sally and falls in
love with one of Brians students, Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson),
a German Jewish heiress. With Sallys help, Fritz succeeds in having
Natalia fall in love with him but he comes to a dilemma where he must
reveal that he is not Christian but a German Jew, ruining his reputation
amongst his friends and connections. This problem is dead center of the
fear of Nazi retaliation and consequences of being a known Jew. I
HIGHLY recommend this film musical because it captures ignorance
and fear so perfectly and Bob Fosses work is genius!

Cast

Liza Minnelli ...... Sally Bowles

Michael York ..... Brian Williams
Joel Gray ............ Master of Ceremonies
Helmut Griem..... Maximilian von Heune
Fritz Wepper....... Fritz Wendel
Marisa Berenson..... Natalia Landauer
Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel..... Fraulein Schneider

Music John Kander

Lyrics Fred Ebb
Screenplay - Jay Presson Allen
Director Bob Fosse
Producer - Cy Feuer