So Chicago is a huge box office hit nominated for 13 Academy Awards. It isn't the first Kander and Ebb musical-turned-movie to earn widespread critical acclaim.

Cabaret, winner of eight 1973 Oscars, was the second directorial project of Bob Fosse, who directed and choreographed the original Broadway production of Chicago.

The film version of Cabaret successfully moves the Kit Kat Club of 1930s Berlin from stage to screen, telling the story of American nightclub singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and British teacher Brian Roberts (Michael York), who both have flings with rich, German politician Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem) as Nazi Germany rises to power around them.

Between club performances, during which scantily-clad dancers and an eerily-omniscient master of ceremonies (Joel Grey) help Sally celebrate her promiscuity and willingly admit the power of money, the film deals with the issues of Sally's unexpected pregnancy, Brian's bisexuality and a young couple's love affair jeopardized by Judaism.

Those expecting an exact replica of the Broadway musical will be disappointed as the movie is only an adaptation of the original sources for the musical, Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories and the play it spawned, John Van Druten's I Am a Camera.

Aside from minor variances in the nationalities and ages of certain characters, the biggest difference lies in the role of the music choices. Several songs from the musical are absent or appear only as background music in the film, which relies more on spoken dialogue to propel the story line.

Cabaret could really be described as a movie with musical numbers, a formula similar to the one recently used by Moulin Rouge.

The film is an accomplishment in style and spectacle, as well as acting and directing, and is a predecessor of modern successes in the recently-revived musical genre.