Fails the Bechdel test

Dr. No

Name: Dr. No
Released: 1962

1962. Directed by Terence Young, written by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood and Berkely Mather.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
11 women characters. 10 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 1 out of 3.

The film

James Bond 007 is Britain's top agent, and is on an exciting mission, to solve the mysterious murder of a fellow agent. The task sends him to Jamaica, where he joins forces with Quarrel and a loyal C.I.A. Agent, Felix Leiter. While dodging tarantulas, "fire breathing dragons", and a trio of assassins, known as "the three blind mice". Bond meets up with the beautiful Honey Ryder and goes face to face with the evil Dr. No.

Released: 10 Oct 1962
Genres: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rated: PG
IMDb: 7.2 / 10
Metascore: 78 / 100
Awards: 5 wins & 4 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Bond 249 lines, man
Honey 51 lines, woman
Dr. No 43 lines, man
Quarrel 36 lines, man
Miss Taro 24 lines, woman
Leiter 21 lines, man
Pleydell-Smith 21 lines, man
Sylvia 15 lines, woman
Dent 13 lines, man
Duff 13 lines, man

Full cast, 30 people

Sean Connery as James Bond
Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder
Joseph Wiseman as Dr. No
Jack Lord as Felix Leiter
Anthony Dawson as Professor R. J. Dent
Zena Marshall as Miss Taro
John Kitzmiller as Quarrel
Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench
Bernard Lee as M
Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny
Peter Burton as Major Boothroyd
Yvonne Shima as Sister Lily
Michel Mok as Sister Rose
Marguerite LeWars as Annabel Chung - Photographer
William Foster-Davis as Superintendent Duff
Dolores Keator as Mary Trueblood
Reginald Carter as Mr. Jones
Louis Blaazer as Pleydell-Smith
Colonel Burton as General Potter
John Hatton as Signals Foreman (uncredited)
Byron Lee as Bandleader (uncredited)
Timothy Napier Moxon as Professor John Strangways (uncredited)
Malou Pantera as Hotel Receptionist (uncredited)
Diana Coupland as Honey Ryder - Singing Voice (voice) (uncredited)
Nikki Van der Zyl as Honey Ryder / Sylvia Trench / Various (voice) (uncredited)
Adrian Robinson as Hearse Driver (uncredited)
Bob Simmons as James Bond in Gunbarrel Sequence (uncredited)
Milton Reid as Dr. No's Guard (uncredited)
Peter Evans as Le Cercle Patron (uncredited)
Lester Pendergast as Puss-Feller (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 185

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	0	7
5 to 8	0	1
9 to 12	0	0
13 to 16	3	2
17 to 20	0	7
21 to 24	11	6
25 to 28	5	18
29 to 32	4	10
33 to 36	0	4
37 to 40	0	3
41 to 44	0	3
45 to 48	0	1
49 to 52	0	13
53 to 56	0	23
57 to 60	0	37
61 to 64	0	0
65 to 68	7	56
69 to 72	0	0
73 to 76	2	23
77 to 80	1	15
81 to 84	9	16
85 to 88	2	17
89 to 92	1	0
93 to 96	0	0
97 to 100	0	0
101 to 104	16	17
105 to 108	0	0
109 to 112	0	22
113 to 116	0	3
117 to 120	13	16
121 to 124	0	5
125 to 128	6	10
129 to 132	7	9
133 to 136	0	4
137 to 140	0	2
141 to 144	13	16
145 to 148	0	2
149 to 152	0	0
153 to 156	1	4
157 to 160	0	7
161 to 164	19	12
165 to 168	4	52
169 to 172	0	0
173 to 176	0	12
177 to 180	0	3
181 to 184	1	2
185 to 185	2	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, 21 are women's.

127 lines from women, 465 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

11 women and 17 men in the cast. 10 women and 16 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 15 of 635. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 124 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 21% of the words (1,410), men 79% (5,383).

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

1 of the 12 people in these jobs is a woman. Across the whole crew, 15% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Terence Young (man)
Written by: Johanna Harwood (woman), Berkely Mather (man), Richard Maibaum (man)
From the novel by: Ian Fleming (man)
Produced by: Harry Saltzman (man), Albert R. Broccoli (man)
Shot by: Ted Moore (man)
Edited by: Peter R. Hunt (man)
Music by: Monty Norman (man)
Production design by: Ken Adam (man)
Cast by: James Liggat (man)