Passes the Bechdel test

April Fool's Day

Name: April Fool's Day
Released: 1986

1986. Directed by Fred Walton, written by Danilo Bach.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
5 women characters. 10 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 14 scenes out of 169.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

A group of eight college friends gather together at an island mansion belonging to heiress Muffy St. John to celebrate their final year of school. They soon discover that each has a hidden secret from their past which is revealed, and soon after, they turn up dead. But are they really dead, or is it a series of very real, very cruel April Fool's jokes? The hostess, Muffy, seems to be the only one who is going on. Could she be the killer?

Released: 28 Mar 1986
Genres: Horror, Mystery
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.2 / 10
Metascore: 49 / 100
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Rob 99 lines, man
Kit 90 lines, woman
Nikki 90 lines, woman
Chaz 73 lines, man
Muffy 66 lines, woman
Arch 43 lines, man
Harvey 36 lines, man
Skip 34 lines, man
Nan 16 lines, woman
Uncle Frank 11 lines, man

Full cast, 13 people

Amy Steel as Kit Graham
Ken Olandt as Rob Ferris
Deborah Foreman as Muffy / Buffy St. John
Deborah Goodrich as Nikki Beshears
Clayton Rohner as Chaz Vyshinski
Thomas F. Wilson as Arch Cummings
Jay Baker as Harvey 'Hal' Edison
Leah Pinsent as Nan Youngblood
Griffin O'Neal as Skip St. John
Tom Heaton as Constable Potter / Uncle Frank
Lloyd Berry as Ferryman
Pat Barlow as Clara
Mike Nomad as Buck

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 169

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 4	4	6
5 to 8	21	21
9 to 12	6	31
13 to 16	3	4
17 to 20	6	7
21 to 24	14	5
25 to 28	6	5
29 to 32	18	15
33 to 36	0	3
37 to 40	4	3
41 to 44	1	2
45 to 48	0	2
49 to 52	1	3
53 to 56	7	10
57 to 60	2	7
61 to 64	3	11
65 to 68	6	5
69 to 72	18	10
73 to 76	3	2
77 to 80	3	4
81 to 84	13	23
85 to 88	3	4
89 to 92	7	4
93 to 96	12	16
97 to 100	2	3
101 to 104	13	19
105 to 108	8	5
109 to 112	0	1
113 to 116	2	2
117 to 120	1	2
121 to 124	18	21
125 to 128	5	11
129 to 132	12	20
133 to 136	10	26
137 to 140	4	0
141 to 144	7	0
145 to 148	4	0
149 to 152	3	1
153 to 156	0	0
157 to 160	8	3
161 to 164	12	2
165 to 168	2	0
169 to 169	0	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

NIKKI I: Any second now. NAN: Oh, thank goodness ! I didn't know if I was on the right road... KIT: Hi. Kit Graham... Nikki Brashears. NAN: Nan Youngblood.

MUFFY: We used to spend our summers here before my mother died. This is a very special place to me. NAN: It's like a dream. NIKKI: On a clear day you can see the Kennedys.

KIT: How friendly will we feel once we've finished with those beans? ON NAN: As soon as her ass hits the seat, she lets slip an outrageous fart. She springs to her feet, her face turning beet red.

NAN: Do you think we should call or something? KIT: I think we should change the subject.

MUFFY: Goodnight. KIT: G'night.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 46 are women's.

272 lines from women, 319 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

5 women and 8 men in the cast. 10 women and 10 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 4 of 605. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 14 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 46% of the words (2,422), men 54% (2,799).

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Fred Walton (man)
Written by: Danilo Bach (man)
Produced by: Frank Mancuso Jr. (man)
Shot by: Charles Minsky (man)
Edited by: Bruce Green (man)
Music by: Charles Bernstein (man)
Cast by: Pamela Basker (gender not listed), Fern Champion (woman), Mary Jo Slater (woman), Susan Willett (gender not listed)