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Fails the Bechdel test

Little Shop of Horrors

1986. Directed by Frank Oz, written by Howard Ashman and Roger Corman and Charles B. Griffith.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    10 women characters. 2 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    Women do talk to each other.
  3. 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.

Poster for Little Shop of Horrors

The film

Seymour Krelborn is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's, a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker Audrey Fulquard, and is berated by Mr. Mushnik daily. One day as Seymour is seeking a new mysterious plant, he finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a craving for blood and soon begins to sing for his supper. Soon enough, Seymour feeds Audrey's sadistic dentist boyfriend to the plant and later, Mushnik for witnessing the death of Audrey's ex. Will Audrey II take over the world or will Seymour and Audrey defeat it?

Released
19 Dec 1986
Genres
Comedy, Horror, Musical
Rated
PG-13
IMDb
7.1 / 10
Metascore
81 / 100
Awards
Nominated for 2 Oscars. 2 wins & 14 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Seymour 159 lines, man
  2. Audrey 95 lines, woman
  3. Orin 57 lines, man
  4. Mushnik 47 lines, man
  5. Girls 43 lines, woman
  6. Audrey Two 35 lines
  7. Audreytwo 25 lines
  8. All 11 lines
  9. Denton 10 lines, man
  10. Customer 7 lines
Full cast, 45 people
  • Rick Moranis as Seymour Krelborn
  • Ellen Greene as Audrey
  • Vincent Gardenia as Mushnik
  • Levi Stubbs as Audrey II (voice)
  • Steve Martin as Orin Scrivello, D.D.S.
  • Tichina Arnold as Crystal
  • Michelle Weeks as Ronnette
  • Tisha Campbell as Chiffon
  • Jim Belushi as Patrick Martin
  • John Candy as Wink Wilkinson
  • Christopher Guest as The First Customer
  • Bill Murray as Arthur Denton
  • Stan Jones as Narrator (voice)
  • Bertice Reading as 'Downtown' Old Woman
  • Ed Wiley as 'Downtown' Bum #1
  • Alan Tilvern as 'Downtown' Bum #2
  • John Scott Martin as 'Downtown' Bum #3
  • Vincent Wong as Chinese Florist
  • Mak Wilson as Doo-Wop Street Singer
  • Danny Cunningham as Doo-Wop Street Singer
  • Danny John-Jules as Doo-Wop Street Singer
  • Gary Palmer as Doo-Wop Street Singer
  • Paul Swaby as Doo-Wop Street Singer
  • Mildred Shay as Second Customer
  • Melissa Wiltsie as Third Customer
  • Kevin Scott as Fourth Customer
  • Barbara Rosenblat as Fifth Customer
  • Adeen Fogle as Radio Station Assistant
  • Kelly Huntley as Audrey & Seymour's Kid
  • Paul Reynolds as Audrey & Seymour's Kid
  • Miriam Margolyes as Dental Nurse
  • Abbie Dabner as Boy Patient
  • Francis Dux as Second Patient
  • Peter Whitman as Patient on Ceiling
  • Heather Henson as Girl Patient
  • Judith Morse as Girl's Mother
  • Bob Sherman as Agent
  • Doreen Hermitage as 'Life' Magazine Lady
  • Kerry Shale as Her Assistant
  • Robert Arden as Network Exec #1
  • Stephen Hoye as Network Exec #2
  • Bob Sessions as Network Exec #3
  • Michael Shannon as Television Reporter
  • Jill Goldston as Frantic Shopper (uncredited)
  • Paul Dooley as Patrick Martin (Director's Cut)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 32% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 93

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 210
3 to 421
5 to 600
7 to 857
9 to 1091
11 to 1216
13 to 141724
15 to 1629
17 to 18116
19 to 2000
21 to 2212
23 to 2423
25 to 2653
27 to 2800
29 to 3000
31 to 3200
33 to 3420
35 to 3662
37 to 381212
39 to 40717
41 to 42714
43 to 4400
45 to 46018
47 to 4858
49 to 50411
51 to 52014
53 to 54022
55 to 5602
57 to 5800
59 to 6000
61 to 6200
63 to 6400
65 to 662117
67 to 6809
69 to 701016
71 to 7202
73 to 7424
75 to 7676
77 to 781017
79 to 8007
81 to 8240
83 to 8410
85 to 86116
87 to 8800
89 to 90114
91 to 9200
93 to 9303

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, 35 are women's.

156 lines from women, 293 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

10 women and 25 men in the cast. 2 women and 11 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 5 of 658. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 54 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

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

Words spoken

Women speak 43% of the words (3,706), men 57% (4,951). Women have 35% 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

Exhibit E: behind the camera

3 of the 10 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Frank Oz (man)
Written by
Howard Ashman (man)
Produced by
David Geffen (man)
Shot by
Robert Paynter (man)
Edited by
John Jympson (man)
Music by
Miles Goodman (man)
Production design by
Roy Walker (man)
Costumes by
Marit Allen (woman)
Cast by
Margery Simkin (woman), Celestia Fox (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Production

    2 women, 4 men, 3 not listed

  • Sound

    0 women, 6 men, 1 not listed

  • Writing

    0 women, 6 men

  • Art

    1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed

  • Directing

    2 women, 1 men, 2 not listed

  • Other crew

    1 women, 0 men, 1 not listed

  • Editing

    0 women, 2 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 23 on average. Men: 43 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Tichina Arnold 17, Tisha Campbell 18, Ellen Greene 35

Men

Jim Belushi 32, Rick Moranis 33, John Candy 36, Steve Martin 41, Levi Stubbs 50, Vincent Gardenia 66

Exhibit G: the money

It made 2.2 times what it cost.

Budget
$25 million
Box office
$54 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 93 scenes and 658 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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