Cabaret

a musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb
a film by Bob Fosse

According to Wikipedia, the music video for ABBA 1976 hit Money, Money, Money “was inspired by the film Cabaret, showing Frida wearing a hat typical of the 1920s”. I didn’t know that until today, which happens to be the 50^th anniversary of the film’s release. Back in 1976, I had no idea that this film even existed. One day, I was rummaging through the box of LPs at home and came across one that I’d never listened to before. I suppose the vinyl, unassumingly called «Мелодии Зарубежного Экрана», “Foreign Screen Melodies” (!), was brought by my cousin who at the time was the main provider of the music we listened to. And so there, under the subtitle Фрагменты из к/ф «Кабаре» (“Fragments from the movie Cabaret”), I spied the name «Деньги, деньги» (Money, Money) which I thought was a slightly abbreviated version of ABBA’s title «Деньги, деньги, деньги».

I promptly listened to the song (side A, track 5). What a disappointment and what a discovery at the same time! And the rest of the tracks too! It sounded like a good fun of a movie, it was.

Curiously, the title Mein Herr was translated as «Мой любимый», i.e. “My beloved”; Helmut Griem (as Хельмут Грим), who indeed appears in the movie but does not sing, was credited on tracks 1 and 5 instead of Joel Grey. At least Liza Minnelli was mentioned. No such luck for the performers of assorted “foreign screen melodies” on the side B, like Mambo from West Side Story or Theme from Shaft.

It was not until 1988 that I watched the film. (Suddenly, somebody somewhere up there realised that a bisexual protagonist — a goodie! — and a treesome were not too much for Soviet viewers. I’d like to express my gratitude to that person.) Thankfully it was not a dub but a voice over by the great Victor Tatarsky. In my view, some parts of that translation are superior to the original — cf. «Моё тело не пробуждает в тебе дикую страсть? Не пробуждает?» and “Doesn’t my body drive you wild with desire? Doesn’t?”.

The film has aged surprisingly well. The songs are fantastic. The choreography is stunning. Young Liza is beautiful. The girls are beautiful. Even the orchestra is beautiful. And the anti-fascist message is as actual now as it was fifty years ago, or even more so.