Movie of the Day: March 21, 2001

IMDb Movie of the Day
Early in the evening of March 27, 1973, it seemed as if the Best Picture winner that year would be Cabaret. It had been nominated for a total of 10 Oscars, while its recognized competition was The Godfather, with 11. Cabaret captured the first seven noms (including Joel Grey's Best Supporting win over James Caan, Al Pacino, and Robert Duvall and Best Director for Bob Fosse, instead of Francis Ford Coppola). Things looked bad for the mob movie. Based upon a successful stage play Cabaret featured Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles, an irrepressible American gadfly/cabaret performer in Berlin, pre-WWII. Hitler's Nazi youths are just starting to kick up their heels and goose-step but Bowles is more interested in Brian Roberts (played by Michael York) than politics. They fall madly in love, but the good times can't last forever and Sally and Brian realize some hard facts about life, and each other. The same could be said of Cabaret's filmmakers, whose dreams of the big award was dashed as Coppolla's epic took Best Picture and a more permanent place in the hearts and minds of moviegoers. (more)

Previous Day | Current Archive | Next Day