Less of an adaptation and more of a total reinvention of the successful stage play, the film version of Cabaret is one of the few movie musicals that is almost universally considered to be superior to the Broadway play that inspired it. Most unusual for the time, director/choreographer Bob Fosse made the ingenious decision to isolate the songs from the dramatic scenes, and keep all of the musical numbers on the stage where they belong. This proves to be a dynamic film-making device, as the terrific songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb create a harrowing juxtaposition to the haunting backdrop of the Nazi party's brutal rise to power in 1930's Berlin. From anti-Semitism and fascism to bisexuality and open promiscuity, there is no subject considered "off-limits" in this taboo-bucking motion picture.<br /><br />In an Oscar-winning performance, Liza Minnelli literally radiates with an exuberance that she was never able to recapture elsewhere, and also takes time to belt out bravura renditions of exceptional numbers like "Mein Herr," "Maybe This Time," and, of course, the sublime title song. Englishman Michael York is slender and sexy as Minnelli's occasional love interest, and Joey Grey picked up an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his amusing and creepy performance as the Kit-Kat club's grand emcee. The German-bred actors Helmut Griem and Fritz Wepper both turn in seductive performances, and Jewish socialite Marisa Berenson is quite affecting as the film's sole ingénue. Berenson's Berlin accent is so convincing that I mistakenly assumed the New York-born actress was really German for years.<br /><br />Winner of eight Academy Awards in all, including Best Director (the film lost the Best Picture Oscar to THE GODFATHER), CABARET is a remarkable film that successfully combines sexual titillation and wicked humor with grim social commentary and nightmarish realism (sometimes simultaneously and with music). The film is entertaining and enjoyable, but also contains a haunting aura that lingers long after the picture has ended. I have seen this film more than 30 times over the past 25, and I get chills during the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" sequence every single time. That type of lasting effect is not common in art work of any medium.