Review of Cabaret (1981) by Jessica G — 18 May 2012

Essentially a latter day romantic comedy transplanted to early 1930s Germany, Cabaret gets by on the charm of its central performances and is occasionally brightened by superior direction and editing. However, pic is too often content to settle for a rather humdrum storyline, and many of the musical numbers are far from memorable and add nothing to the story.

A subplot involving a Jewish heiress adds little to the film and perhaps over-emphasises the Nazi backdrop, which might have worked better had it hung like an unmentioned specter over the proceedings.

Some scenes suffer from a similar lack of subtlety, such as one in which a Aryan boy corrals a sympathetic crowd with a nationalistic tune that soon has many amongst them on their feet and singing along; though it initially appears to offer a perverse reflection of a similar scene in Casablanca, it's let down by a few rather heavy handed touches, such as Michael York's obvious proclamation that they won't be as hard to suppress as his friend Maximillian seems to think.