Fails the Bechdel test
Darker Than Amber
1970. Directed by Robert Clouse, written by John D. MacDonald and Ed Waters.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 10 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
Professional beach bum and 'knight errant' Travis McGee goes up against psychotic body-builder Terry Bartell. McGee pulls out all the stops when he joins a Caribbean cruise to bring the killer to justice.
- Released
- 28 Sep 1970
- Genres
- Action, Drama, Mystery
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.1 / 10
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Trav 236 lines, man
- Meyer 67 lines, man
- Vangie 53 lines, woman
- Del 39 lines, woman
- Noreen 38 lines, woman
- Griff 35 lines, man
- Jake 21 lines, man
- Terry 13 lines, man
- Jerry 11 lines
- Roz 11 lines
Full cast, 11 people
- Rod Taylor as Travis McGee
- Theodore Bikel as Meyer
- Suzy Kendall as Vangie / Merrimay
- Ahna Capri as Del
- William Smith as Terry
- Janet MacLachlan as Noreen
- Robert Phillips as Griff
- Jane Russell as Alabama Tigress
- James Booth as Burk
- Oswaldo Calvo as Manuel
- Marcia Knight as Landlady
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 14% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 108
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 3 | 0 | 7 |
| 4 to 6 | 1 | 11 |
| 7 to 9 | 6 | 21 |
| 10 to 12 | 6 | 19 |
| 13 to 15 | 12 | 8 |
| 16 to 18 | 2 | 1 |
| 19 to 21 | 16 | 30 |
| 22 to 24 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 to 27 | 12 | 13 |
| 28 to 30 | 0 | 6 |
| 31 to 33 | 0 | 16 |
| 34 to 36 | 1 | 24 |
| 37 to 39 | 14 | 17 |
| 40 to 42 | 1 | 1 |
| 43 to 45 | 23 | 20 |
| 46 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 51 | 0 | 7 |
| 52 to 54 | 0 | 35 |
| 55 to 57 | 0 | 21 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 26 |
| 61 to 63 | 2 | 11 |
| 64 to 66 | 0 | 7 |
| 67 to 69 | 6 | 17 |
| 70 to 72 | 5 | 9 |
| 73 to 75 | 1 | 5 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 0 |
| 79 to 81 | 21 | 24 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 to 87 | 0 | 1 |
| 88 to 90 | 0 | 1 |
| 91 to 93 | 3 | 1 |
| 94 to 96 | 4 | 9 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 0 |
| 100 to 102 | 6 | 5 |
| 103 to 105 | 2 | 2 |
| 106 to 108 | 1 | 5 |
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, 28 are women's.
146 lines from women, 381 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 6 men in the cast. 10 women and 5 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 22 of 615.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 115 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 31% of the words (2,641), men 69% (5,803). Women have 28% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
0
Two men
35
Exhibit E: behind the camera
None of the 8 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 0% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Robert Clouse (man)
- Written by
- Ed Waters (gender not listed)
- From the novel by
- John D. MacDonald (man)
- Produced by
- Walter Seltzer (man)
- Shot by
- Frank V. Phillips (man)
- Edited by
- Fred A. Chulack (gender not listed)
- Music by
- John Carl Parker (man)
- Costumes by
- Richard Bruno (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 2 men
-
Production
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 36 on average. Men: 42 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Ahna Capri 26, Suzy Kendall 33, Janet MacLachlan 36, Jane Russell 49
Men
William Smith 37, Rod Taylor 40, James Booth 42, Robert Phillips 45, Theodore Bikel 46
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 108 scenes and 615 lines of dialogue. How the test works
