Cabaret - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Cabaret or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Cabaret

[albert]

The original Broadway production of "Cabaret" opened at the Broadhurst Theater on November 2, 1966, ran for 1165 performances and won the 1967 Tony Award for the Best Musical. Joel Grey recreates his role in the movie for which the won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He later won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this film, making him one of a handful actors to have won both a Tony and Oscar for the same role, a feat later achieved by Viola Davis for Fences (2016).

[lena]

Brian Roberts expresses surprise that Sally Bowles is an American, a reference to the fact that Sally is British in the novel and the musical upon which the 1972 film is based. In the original stories by Christopher Isherwood and in the earlier film I Am a Camera (1955), both Sally and Brian are English.

[ethel]

The film depicts the character of Sally Bowles, based upon Jean Ross, as having an abortion against the wishes of Brian Roberts. In historical reality, Jean Ross had an affair in 1931 with jazz pianist Peter van Eyck, later star of The Wages of Fear (1953). When their affair ended, Ross learned she was pregnant with Eyck's child. Ross convinced her gay friend Christopher Isherwood to falsely claim to be the child's father in the legal paperwork in order to authorize an abortion. Isherwood visited Ross in the hospital following her abortion. Wrongly assuming he was the father, the hospital staff belittled him for impregnating Ross and then callously forcing her to have abortion. This tragicomic scenario later inspired Isherwood's short story, "Sally Bowles".

[cassandra]

The strange woman appearing at the beginning of the movie sitting in the back of the Kit-Kat Club holding a cigarette is based on the painting "Portrait of Journalist, Sylvia Von Harden" by German Expressionist painter Otto Dix.

[tom]

Five songs from the Broadway production are not performed in the film but appear as background music. When Brian arrives, Sally prepares two Prairie Oysters and puts on a record which plays "Don't Tell Mama." When Sally seduces Brian, she plays "It Couldn't Please Me More" on the gramophone. As Sally prepares to leave for dinner with her father, the song being played on the piano is "Married." This song is reprised when Sally and Brian discuss marriage, this time on the gramophone in German ("Heiraten") sung by Greta Keller. When Max, Brian, and Sally have lunch at the restaurant, an ensemble plays "Sitting Pretty," which is also heard on the gramophone at Max's estate as they dance. When Brian and Fritz walk into the parlor and the other tenants discuss the Nazis, the background music is the song "So What."

[linda]

The original camera negative of this film has long been missing and may never be found. A good deal of the film restoration for VHS, DVD, digital and other modern formats had to be done frame by frame.

[violet]

The film won 8 Oscars, though not Best Picture. It lost that as well as Best Adapted Screenplay to The Godfather (1972).

[cameron]

Instead of writing a new ballad for the film, John Kander and Fred Ebb were persuaded by Liza Minnelli (and later, Bob Fosse) to use a song from their trunk "Maybe This Time," a tune Liza had recorded for her first album. Fosse wasn't a fan of the song, but changed his mind after deciding to stage it in the empty nightclub. Minnelli said that Fred Ebb jokingly blamed her for the loss of an extra Oscar nomination in the Best Original Song category for her desire to sing a previously written title.

[mathew]

Natalia's dog is a Wire Fox Terrier, a breed popular in Germany during the 1930s. The dog is seen in several scenes when Fritz and Brian knock on Natalia's door, when Sally has tea at Natalia's home and when the Nazis kill the dog and leave it at Natalia's front door.

[harry]

The only Best Picture Oscar nominee that year to be also nominated for Best Score (Adaptation and Original Song), and Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography.

[ken]

In preparation for reprising his role of the Emcee for the film, Joel Grey did extensive research in order to achieve an authentic German accent.

[ivan]

Liza Minnelli designed her hair and make-up with the aid of her father, director Vincente Minnelli. Liza and her father modeled the visual look of Sally Bowles upon Jazz Age flapper icons such as Louise Brooks and Colleen Moore. In a 2006 interview, Liza recalled that she had asked her father, "Should I be emulating Marlene Dietrich or something?" And he replied, "No, study everything you can about Louise Brooks."

[lynn]

Originally sung in English, "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" was dubbed in German for the French and German versions of the film.

[kim]

In the original Broadway version, the main characters are an American writer and English singer. In the film version, they are an English writer and an American singer.

[russell]

The name of Joel Grey's character is never revealed. The character is simply referred to as the Emcee or Master of Ceremonies. This also applies to the Broadway production.

[gerald]

Joel Grey stated in interviews that he believed Bob Fosse wanted the search for an actor to play the Emcee character to be unsuccessful because he wished to play the role himself. Fosse was displeased when told by the film's producers that he must cast Grey and this complicated their relations while filming.

[gerald]

Following the success of 1972 film, Jean Ross (who inspired the character of Sally Bowles) was hounded by journalists before her death in 1973. She bitterly noted that reporters always claimed to seek knowledge "about Berlin in the Thirties" and yet they did not wish "to know about the unemployment or the poverty or the Nazis marching through the streets. All they want to know is how many men I went to bed with."

[jessica]

Sally Bowles introduces herself as "an international woman of mystery" when she first meets Brian Roberts (Michael York). Twenty-five years later, York would co-star in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997).

[kristina]

Selected in 2003 by the Smithsonian Institution as one of eight films being preserved for future generations.