A Damaged Reel of Film
Fans of Cabaret had to wait until 1998 for it to be released on DVD for the first time. It was then re-released several times in 2003, 2008, and 2012. In April of 2012, Warner Bros. revealed a brand new restoration of the film at the TCM Classic Film Festival, before releasing a Blu-ray version in 2013.
Joel Grey holding his Oscar for the film ‘Cabaret’ in 1972. Photo by Snap / Shutterstock
Incredibly, the original camera negatives got lost, and the only surviving interpositive had a huge scratch along 1,000 feet of one of its reels. Digital editors and restorers had to work tirelessly to repair the damage done by this scratch, which initially affected around 10 minutes of footage. In the end, after digital attempts proved unsuccessful, the damaged film had to be hand-painted with a computer stylus.