“It’s better than winning the Academy Award in 1972!” exclaimed Liza Minnelli of her appearance Thursday night at the world premiere of a new 40th anniversary digital restoration of “Cabaret” that opened the TCM Classic Film at the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Said her co-star and fellow Oscar winner Joel Grey, who took the night off from “Anything Goes” on Broadway to attend: “The possibility of seeing his film in this theater in this town was too exciting. I couldn’t resist!”
Both of them joined fellow co-star Michael York (whose agent told him he was “crazy” to play a bisexual writer) in interviews with TCM’s Robert Osborne, describing the film’s director, Bob Fosse, as an obsessive genius who drive his actors hard and his producers crazy.
“Bob got telegram from a studio executive complaining that all of the smoky nightclub shots were going to break up when projected at drive-ins,” Minnelli said. “He tore it up in front of us.”
She said Fosse shot three differently staged versions of the number “Money Money” until he got one he felt was dark enough, repeatedly complaining her performance wasn’t good enough.
“Bob didn’t want me in the movie, I really think he wanted to play the part himself,” said Grey, who re-created his Broadway tour de force as the seedy master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Club and became the only actor to win an Oscar for a performance consisting entirely of musical numbers.
“The fact I was shoved down his throat created an interesting challenge for the both of us. But his work in this film is so fantastic I’m honored to be involved in it.”
Minnelli said she was originally going to model her performance as Sally Bowles on Marlene Dietrich but that her father, director Vincente Minnelli said, “you know, there were other looks” and gave her a photo of silent star Louise Brooks. So she bobbed her hair and dyed it black for her signature role.
Osborne noted that “A Star is Born” starring Minnelli’s mother, Judy Garland, opened the first TCM Classic Film Festival two years ago and that last year’s opening night film was Vincent Minnelli’s “An American in Paris.”
This visually entrancing restoration of the Oscar-winning “Cabaret,” showcasing Geoffrey Unsworth’s smoke-filled depiction of moral corruption in 1931 Germany amid the rise of the Nazis will presumably be released on Blu-ray later this year by Warner Home VIdeo.