Fails the Bechdel test

Charade

Name: Charade
Released: 1963

1963. Directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
4 women characters. 1 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other.
No 3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.

The film

In what's been called 'the best Alfred Hitchcock film which he didn't direct,' a man is thrown off a train, and when the police locate his wife, it turns out she knew nothing about him - not even his real name. After her are four men, who insist she's in possession of a huge amount of money which they believe to be theirs. If she doesn't give it to them, she'll be killed.

Released: 05 Dec 1963
Genres: Comedy, Mystery, Romance
Rated: Approved
IMDb: 7.8 / 10
Metascore: 83 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 4 wins & 9 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Reggie 491 lines, woman
Dyle 133 lines, man
Peter 98 lines, man
Adam 96 lines, man
Bartholomew 83 lines, man
Tex 53 lines, man
Grandpierre 41 lines, man
Scobie 35 lines, man
Sylvie 31 lines, woman
Gideon 30 lines, man

Full cast, 27 people

Cary Grant as Peter Joshua
Audrey Hepburn as Regina Lampert
Walter Matthau as Hamilton Bartholemew
James Coburn as Tex Panthollow
George Kennedy as Herman Scobie
Dominique Minot as Sylvie Gaudel
Ned Glass as Leopold Gideon
Jacques Marin as Edouard Grandpierre
Paul Bonifas as Mr. Felix
Thomas Chelimsky as Jean-Louis Gaudel
Marc Arian as Subway Passenger (uncredited)
Claudine Berg as Maid (uncredited)
Marcel Bernier as Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Albert Daumergue as Man in Stamp Market (uncredited)
Raoul Delfosse as Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Stanley Donen as Man in Elevator (voice) (uncredited)
Jean Gold as Writer On Cafe Terrace (uncredited)
Chantal Goya as (uncredited)
Clément Harari as German Tourist (uncredited)
Monte Landis as Master of Ceremonies at Club (uncredited)
Bernard Musson as Hotel Receptionnist (uncredited)
Antonio Passalia as Italian Representative at URESCO (uncredited)
Jacques Préboist as Ice Cream Salesman (uncredited)
Peter Stone as Man in Elevator / Marine (voice) (uncredited)
Michel Thomass as Embassy Driver (uncredited)
Roger Trapp as Mortuary Employee (uncredited)
Louis Viret as Hallmark Employee On Subway (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 210

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 5	38	24
6 to 10	6	3
11 to 15	34	38
16 to 20	58	48
21 to 25	29	32
26 to 30	18	18
31 to 35	7	5
36 to 40	2	27
41 to 45	14	13
46 to 50	8	12
51 to 55	2	2
56 to 60	1	0
61 to 65	15	20
66 to 70	26	25
71 to 75	7	12
76 to 80	0	27
81 to 85	34	28
86 to 90	5	5
91 to 95	17	72
96 to 100	1	15
101 to 105	23	19
106 to 110	10	14
111 to 115	3	5
116 to 120	33	39
121 to 125	4	17
126 to 130	14	18
131 to 135	14	9
136 to 140	6	16
141 to 145	39	9
146 to 150	3	2
151 to 155	2	7
156 to 160	2	6
161 to 165	1	0
166 to 170	0	5
171 to 175	2	0
176 to 180	2	0
181 to 185	1	2
186 to 190	13	12
191 to 195	0	0
196 to 200	0	0
201 to 205	0	2
206 to 210	30	9

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: every 100 lines

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

524 lines from women, 617 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

4 women and 23 men in the cast. 1 women and 11 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 1,192. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 31 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 42% of the words (4,851), men 58% (6,762). Women have 46% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit D: 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 E: behind the camera

None of the 9 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 0% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Stanley Donen (man)
Written by: Peter Stone (man)
Story by: Marc Behm (man), Peter Stone (man)
Produced by: Stanley Donen (man)
Shot by: Charles Lang (man)
Edited by: Jim Clark (man)
Music by: Henry Mancini (man)
Costumes by: Hubert de Givenchy (gender not listed)

The crew, department by department

Sound

0 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
Production

0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
Other crew

0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
Art

0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
Camera

0 women, 3 men
Costume & Make-Up

0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
Writing

0 women, 3 men
Directing

0 women, 2 men

Women
Men
Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 34 on average. Men: 48 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Audrey Hepburn 34

Men

James Coburn 35, George Kennedy 38, Walter Matthau 43, Jacques Marin 44, Ned Glass 57, Cary Grant 59, Paul Bonifas 61

Exhibit G: the money

It made 3.4 times what it cost.

Budget: $4 million
Box office: $13.5 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 210 scenes and 1,192 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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