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Passes the Bechdel test

Curly Sue

1991. Directed by John Hughes, written by John Hughes.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    10 women characters. 10 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 14 scenes out of 288.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

Poster for Curly Sue

The film

Bill Dancer and his young companion, Curly Sue, are the classic homeless folks with hearts of gold. Their scams are aimed not at turning a profit, but at getting enough to eat. When they scam the rich and beautiful Grey Ellison into believing she backed her Mercedes into Bill, they're only hoping for a free meal. But she is touched, and over the objections of her snotty fiance, insist on putting them up for the night. As they get to know each other, Bill becomes convinced that this is where Curly Sue belongs - in a home, cared for by someone that can give her the advantages that his homeless, nomadic existence lacks. He plans to leave her in Grey's and take off...but she has other ideas.

Released
25 Oct 1991
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Family
Rated
PG
IMDb
5.9 / 10
Awards
1 win total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Grey 325 lines, woman
  2. Bill 232 lines, man
  3. Curly Sue 230 lines, woman
  4. Walker 89 lines, man
  5. Oxbar 35 lines, man
  6. Anise 9 lines, woman
  7. Frank 9 lines, man
  8. Mrs. Arnold 9 lines, woman
  9. Personnel Director 9 lines, man
  10. Agnes 8 lines, woman
Full cast, 39 people
  • Jim Belushi as Bill Dancer
  • Alisan Porter as Curly Sue
  • Kelly Lynch as Grey Ellison
  • John Getz as Walker McCormick
  • Steve Carell as Tesio
  • Fred Thompson as Bernard Oxbar
  • Edie McClurg as Secretary
  • Viveka Davis as Trina
  • Gail Boggs as Anise Hall
  • Ralph Foody as Drifter
  • Burke Byrnes as Dr. Maxwell
  • Barbara Tarbuck as Mrs. Arnold
  • Adele Robbins as DCFS Caseworker
  • Ely Pouget as Dinah Tompkins
  • Cameron Thor as Maitre d'
  • Branscombe Richmond as Albert
  • Charles Adams as Prison Guard
  • James W. Boinski as Pawnbroker
  • Lyle Browne as Theater Patron
  • Nadine Burke as Social Worker
  • Carol Chickering as Soprano
  • Grace Collette as Foster Mother
  • Cedrick Pipes as Cook
  • Alonzo Hall as Cook
  • Luke Reichle as Store Clerk 1
  • Joel Levin as Store Clerk 2
  • Tammy Karabas as Store Clerk 3
  • Patricia Hooker as Store Clerk 4
  • Joe Liss as Ticket Taker
  • Rocco Pecirno as Father of the Bride
  • Susan Mayer as Woman with Champagne Glass
  • John Ashton as Frank Arnold
  • James DeAngelo as Hobo
  • Brian Reed Garvin as Theater Manager
  • Karen Jensen-Clark as Theater Patron
  • Shon Little as Federico
  • Larry Nazimek as Homeless Person
  • Robert 'Bobby Z' Zajonc as State Trooper
  • Robert Minkoff as Bit

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 6 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 288

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

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 665
7 to 1214
13 to 1800
19 to 2408
25 to 30102
31 to 361215
37 to 42124
43 to 482123
49 to 5455
55 to 601018
61 to 66011
67 to 721622
73 to 781519
79 to 841831
85 to 902414
91 to 9600
97 to 10210
103 to 108180
109 to 1141820
115 to 120848
121 to 12600
127 to 13201
133 to 1382924
139 to 14400
145 to 15000
151 to 1561411
157 to 162260
163 to 16861
169 to 17422
175 to 1802023
181 to 1862019
187 to 19292
193 to 1982010
199 to 204106
205 to 21066
211 to 216220
217 to 2221310
223 to 228160
229 to 234141
235 to 24062
241 to 24640
247 to 2522231
253 to 2581810
259 to 264207
265 to 270164
271 to 2761112
277 to 282180
283 to 28862

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.
GREY: Oh, Jesus ... GREY: Not off the ground. CURLY SUE: Never mind, Bill. It's a washer.
CURLY SUE: 'Home, home on the range! Where the deer and the antelope play ... !' A lady drops a dollar bill in the hat on the floor. CURLY SUE: Thank you, ma'am. 'Where seldom is heard ... A discouraging word ... ' Everybody! WOMEN AND CURLY SUE: 'And the skies are not cloudy all day!'
CURLY SUE: I'm sorry. I fell asleep seeing as how I was so extremely tired. She rubs the back of head with the heel of her palm. She took a crack on th… GREY: You can go to sleep in just a minute. Thank you so much for coming up.
CURLY SUE: This is very excellent. GREY: I'm glad you like it. CURLY SUE: I never knew pizza's so good when it's hot. CURLY SUE: Do you think Bill wants some?
CURLY SUE: You could do a lot worse. GREY: It's strange. Suddenly, this is really hard . SUE: If she ain't careful, she's gonna get her mouth washed out with soap.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 61 are women's.

619 lines from women, 393 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

10 women and 14 men in the cast. 10 women and 5 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 19 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 55% of the words (5,845), men 45% (4,737). Women have 61% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
John Hughes (man)
Written by
John Hughes (man)
Produced by
John Hughes (man)
Shot by
Jeffrey L. Kimball (man)
Edited by
Peck Prior (man), Harvey Rosenstock (man)
Music by
Georges Delerue (man)
Production design by
Doug Kraner (man)
Costumes by
Michael Kaplan (man)
Cast by
Janet Hirshenson (woman), Jane Jenkins (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Production

    3 women, 2 men, 4 not listed

  • Art

    1 women, 1 men, 2 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    1 women, 1 men

  • Other crew

    0 women, 2 men

  • Directing

    1 women, 1 men

  • Editing

    0 women, 2 men

  • Camera

    0 women, 1 men

  • Sound

    0 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 29 on average. Men: 44 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Alisan Porter 10, Viveka Davis 22, Kelly Lynch 32, Edie McClurg 40, Gail Boggs 40

Men

Steve Carell 29, Jim Belushi 37, John Getz 45, Fred Thompson 49, Ralph Foody 62

Exhibit H: the money

It made 1.3 times what it cost.

Budget
$25 million
Box office
$33.7 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 288 scenes and 1,040 lines of dialogue. How the test works

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