Fails the Bechdel test
Double Indemnity
1944. Directed by Billy Wilder, written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 4 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
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband to receive the proceeds of an accident insurance policy and Walter devises a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a double indemnity clause. When Mr. Dietrichson is found dead on a train track, the police accept the determination of accidental death. However, the insurance analyst and Walter's best friend Barton Keyes does not buy the story and suspects that Phyllis has murdered her husband with the help of another man.
- Released
- 06 Jul 1944
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
- Rated
- Approved
- IMDb
- 8.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 95 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 7 Oscars. 5 wins & 9 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Neff 448 lines, man
- Phyllis 236 lines, woman
- Keyes 142 lines, man
- Lola 56 lines, woman
- Norton 38 lines, man
- Dietrichson 32 lines
- Jackson 25 lines, man
- Gorlopis 20 lines, man
- Zachetti 10 lines, man
- Maid 6 lines, woman
Full cast, 32 people
- Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff
- Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson
- Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes
- Porter Hall as Mr. Jackson
- Jean Heather as Lola Dietrichson
- Tom Powers as Mr. Dietrichson
- Byron Barr as Nino Zachetti
- Richard Gaines as Mr. Norton
- Fortunio Bonanova as Sam Garlopis
- John Philliber as Joe Pete
- Douglas Spencer as Lou Schwartz (uncredited)
- Mona Freeman as Secretary (uncredited)
- Miriam Nelson as Keyes' Secretary (uncredited)
- Teala Loring as Telephone Operator (uncredited)
- Betty Farrington as Nettie (uncredited)
- Constance Purdy as Shopper in Market (uncredited)
- Sam McDaniel as Charlie (uncredited)
- Florence Wix as Passenger at Station (uncredited)
- Harold Garrison as Redcap (uncredited)
- Edmund Cobb as Train Conductor (uncredited)
- Kernan Cripps as Conductor (uncredited)
- Dick Rush as Pullman Conductor (uncredited)
- Billy Mitchell as Pullman Porter (uncredited)
- James Adamson as Pullman Porter (uncredited)
- Floyd Shackelford as Pullman Porter (uncredited)
- Oscar Smith as Pullman Porter (uncredited)
- Raymond Chandler as Man Reading Book (uncredited)
- Bess Flowers as Norton's Secretary (uncredited)
- Eddie Hall as Man in Drug Store (uncredited)
- Clarence Muse as Man (uncredited)
- George Magrill as Man (uncredited)
- John Berry as (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, 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 8
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 1 | 130 | 212 |
| 2 to 2 | 80 | 121 |
| 3 to 3 | 13 | 43 |
| 4 to 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 to 5 | 41 | 141 |
| 6 to 6 | 0 | 57 |
| 7 to 7 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 to 8 | 40 | 127 |
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, 30 are women's.
304 lines from women, 706 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
9 women and 21 men in the cast. 4 women and 9 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 17 of 1,056.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 61 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 23% of the words (3,671), men 77% (12,164). Women have 30% 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
4
Two men
17
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 8 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 6% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Billy Wilder (man)
- Written by
- Billy Wilder (man), Raymond Chandler (man)
- From the novel by
- James M. Cain (man)
- Shot by
- John F. Seitz (man)
- Edited by
- Doane Harrison (man)
- Music by
- Miklós Rózsa (man)
- Costumes by
- Edith Head (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Art
0 women, 3 men
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men
-
Writing
0 women, 3 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 1 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 47 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jean Heather 23, Barbara Stanwyck 36
Men
Byron Barr 26, Fred MacMurray 35, Richard Gaines 39, Fortunio Bonanova 49, Edward G. Robinson 50, Tom Powers 53, Porter Hall 55, John Philliber 71
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $927,262
- Box office
- $2.5 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 8 scenes and 1,056 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
