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Passes the Bechdel test

Grand Hotel

1932. Directed by Edmund Goulding, written by Vicki Baum and William Absalom Drake and Béla Balázs.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    11 women characters. 3 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 2 scenes out of 4.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

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

Poster for Grand Hotel

The film

Berlin's plushest, most expensive hotel is the setting where in the words of Dr. Otternschlag "People come, people go. Nothing ever happens." The doctor is usually drunk so he missed the fact that Baron von Geigern is broke and trying to steal eccentric dancer Grusinskaya's pearls. He ends up stealing her heart instead. Powerful German businessman Preysing brow beats Kringelein, one of his company's lowly bookkeepers but it is the terminally ill Kringelein who holds all the cards in the end. Meanwhile, the Baron also steals the heart of Preysing's secretary, Flaemmchen, but she doesn't end up with either one of them in the end.

Released
11 Sep 1932
Genres
Drama, Romance
Rated
Approved
IMDb
7.3 / 10
Metascore
79 / 100
Awards
Won 1 Oscar. 9 wins & 1 nomination total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Baron 199 lines, man
  2. Kringelein 147 lines, man
  3. Preysing 146 lines, man
  4. Grusinskaya 140 lines, woman
  5. Flaemmchen 133 lines, woman
  6. Doctor 42 lines
  7. Senf 40 lines, man
  8. Gerstenkorn 37 lines, man
  9. Suzette 31 lines, woman
  10. Zinnowitz 30 lines, man
Full cast, 48 people
  • Greta Garbo as Grusinskaya
  • John Barrymore as Baron Felix von Gaigern
  • Joan Crawford as Flämmchen
  • Wallace Beery as General Director Preysing
  • Lionel Barrymore as Otto Kringelein
  • Lewis Stone as Doctor Otternschlag
  • Jean Hersholt as Senf
  • Robert McWade as Meierheim
  • Purnell Pratt as Zinnowitz
  • Ferdinand Gottschalk as Pimenov
  • Rafaela Ottiano as Suzette
  • Morgan Wallace as Chauffeur
  • Tully Marshall as Gerstenkorn
  • Frank Conroy as Rohna
  • Murray Kinnell as Schweimann
  • Edwin Maxwell as Dr. Waitz
  • John Davidson as Hotel Manager (uncredited)
  • Allen Jenkins as Hotel Meat Packer (uncredited)
  • Eric Mayne as Gambler (uncredited)
  • Philo McCullough as Hotel Guest / Gambler (uncredited)
  • Greta Meyer as Housekeeper in Room 174 (uncredited)
  • Bert Moorhouse as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Sarah Padden as Chambermaid in Room 174 (uncredited)
  • Bodil Rosing as Nurse Helping Old Lady Into Elevator (uncredited)
  • Leo White as Hotel Porter (uncredited)
  • Joan Barclay as Young Girl in Lobby (uncredited)
  • Max Barwyn as Hotel Guest / Gambler (uncredited)
  • Edward Biby as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Mary Carlisle as Mrs. Hoffman - Young Honeymooner (uncredited)
  • Oliver Cross as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Wally Dean as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Bess Flowers as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Herbert Evans as Clerk (uncredited)
  • Curt Furberg as Elevator Operator (uncredited)
  • Sherry Hall as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Milton Holmes as Mr. Hoffman - Young Honeymooner (uncredited)
  • Sydney Jarvis as Police Officer (uncredited)
  • Ruby Lafayette as Old Lady (uncredited)
  • Robert Lees as Bellboy (uncredited)
  • Sam McDaniel as Bartender (uncredited)
  • King Mojave as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Lee Phelps as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Edward Reinach as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
  • Dick Rush as Gendarme (uncredited)
  • Rolfe Sedan as Hotel Guest in Bar (uncredited)
  • Mike Tellegen as Taxi Driver (uncredited)
  • Harry Wilson as Worker (uncredited)
  • Florence Wix as Hotel Guest (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 4

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 100
2 to 2213382
3 to 3102355
4 to 4612

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.
FLAEMMCHEN: Have caviar if you like, but it tastes like herring to me. SUZETTE: Ssshh! Please! Madam is asleep.
GRUSINSKAYA: Oh -- but it can't be. SUZETTE: Oh, come, Madam -- please come. GRUSINSKAYA: All right, Suzette -- quickly -- hurry.
SUZETTE: Should I -- Does madame wish... GRUSINSKAYA: Suzette, please go, I want to be alone.
GRUSINSKAYA: I know -- I know -- but it will be sunny in Tremezzo. We'll have a guest then. SUZETTE: Yes, Madam.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 30 are women's.

321 lines from women, 749 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

11 women and 33 men in the cast. 3 women and 19 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 1,137. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 104 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

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

Words spoken

Women speak 27% of the words (3,169), men 73% (8,437). Women have 30% 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 10 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 10% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Edmund Goulding (man)
Written by
Béla Balázs (man), Edgar Allan Woolf (man)
From the novel by
Vicki Baum (woman)
Produced by
Irving Thalberg (man)
Shot by
William H. Daniels (man)
Edited by
Blanche Sewell (woman)
Music by
Charles Maxwell (man)
Costumes by
Adrian (man)
Cast by
Benjamin Thau (gender not listed)

The crew, department by department

  • Camera

    0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed

  • Sound

    0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed

  • Writing

    1 women, 4 men

  • Costume & Make-Up

    0 women, 3 men

  • Directing

    0 women, 2 men

  • Production

    0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed

  • Art

    0 women, 1 men

  • Other crew

    0 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 26 on average. Men: 54 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Greta Garbo 26, Joan Crawford 26

Men

Jean Hersholt 46, Purnell Pratt 46, Wallace Beery 47, John Barrymore 50, Lewis Stone 52, Lionel Barrymore 54, Robert McWade 60, Ferdinand Gottschalk 74

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 4 scenes and 1,137 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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