Passes the Bechdel test
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
1948. Directed by H.C. Potter, written by Eric Hodgins and Norman Panama and Melvin Frank.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 6 scenes out of 82. -
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.
The film
The Blandings live in New York in a tiny apartment. They decide to move to the country and find that buying and building and living in their own home is easier said than done.
- Released
- 04 Jun 1948
- Genres
- Comedy, Romance
- Rated
- Approved
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Awards
- 1 nomination
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Jim 402 lines, man
- Muriel 222 lines, woman
- Bill 134 lines, man
- Simms 56 lines, man
- Betsy 37 lines, woman
- Joan 29 lines, woman
- Smith 26 lines, man
- Tesander 24 lines, man
- Funkhauser 20 lines, man
- Hackett 16 lines, man
Full cast, 31 people
- Cary Grant as Jim Blandings
- Myrna Loy as Muriel Blandings
- Melvyn Douglas as Bill Cole
- Reginald Denny as Simms
- Sharyn Moffett as Joan Blandings
- Connie Marshall as Betsy Blandings
- Louise Beavers as Gussie
- Ian Wolfe as Smith
- Harry Shannon as Tesander
- Tito Vuolo as Mr. Zucca
- Nestor Paiva as Joe Appollonio
- Jason Robards Sr. as John Retch
- Lurene Tuttle as Mary
- Lex Barker as Carpenter Foreman
- Emory Parnell as Mr. PeDelford
- Stanley Andrews as Mr. Murphy (uncredited)
- Robert Bray as Workman (uncredited)
- Don Brodie as Charlie (uncredited)
- Cliff Clark as Jones (uncredited)
- Kernan Cripps as Policeman (uncredited)
- Frank Darien as Judge Quarles (uncredited)
- Hal K. Dawson as Harry Selby (uncredited)
- Mike Lally as Hurried Diner (uncredited)
- Gene Leslie as Taxi Driver (uncredited)
- Charles Middleton as Wrecker (uncredited)
- Franklin Parker as Simpson (uncredited)
- Ralph Stein as Proprietor (uncredited)
- Dan Tobin as Bunny Funkhauser (uncredited)
- Friedrich von Ledebur as Workman (uncredited)
- Bud Wiser as Customer (uncredited)
- Will Wright as Eph Hackett (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 82
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 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 to 6 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 to 8 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 to 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 11 to 12 | 10 | 9 |
| 13 to 14 | 37 | 26 |
| 15 to 16 | 9 | 41 |
| 17 to 18 | 5 | 4 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 5 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 2 |
| 23 to 24 | 11 | 50 |
| 25 to 26 | 25 | 56 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 10 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 1 |
| 35 to 36 | 1 | 4 |
| 37 to 38 | 5 | 16 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 4 |
| 41 to 42 | 11 | 41 |
| 43 to 44 | 1 | 9 |
| 45 to 46 | 41 | 80 |
| 47 to 48 | 6 | 36 |
| 49 to 50 | 5 | 49 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 13 |
| 53 to 54 | 10 | 38 |
| 55 to 56 | 2 | 8 |
| 57 to 58 | 11 | 11 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 2 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 14 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 27 |
| 65 to 66 | 8 | 10 |
| 67 to 68 | 18 | 12 |
| 69 to 70 | 12 | 11 |
| 71 to 72 | 2 | 2 |
| 73 to 74 | 23 | 25 |
| 75 to 76 | 3 | 5 |
| 77 to 78 | 11 | 17 |
| 79 to 80 | 23 | 63 |
| 81 to 82 | 11 | 14 |
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.
MURIEL: Darling, please! Children, you'll be late to school. Run along and -- JOAN: Miss Stellwagon says that functionalism in modern furniture -- MURIEL: Never mind, dear.
MARY: Will that be all? BETSY: "Forced to sell. Farm dwelling, oak grove, apple orchard, trout stream, hay fields, four barns, original beams --"
MURIEL: Children, you haven't even seen this house yet. BETSY: Personally, I'd like a Crane Mobile home. It comes all folded up and all you do is plug it in for electricity and water and --
BETSY: I think it's awful. Smelling up the house with those horrible chemicals. MURIEL: Never mind, Betsy. Dear, I'm going up to the place this afternoon to see about landscaping. Bill's driving me.
JOAN: Bicker, bicker, bicker. MURIEL: Another word and you don't get your laboratory. BETSY: Well, that's something!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 30 are women's.
314 lines from women, 731 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
5 women and 22 men in the cast. 5 women and 20 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 14 of 1,073.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 48 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 (3,346), men 73% (8,839). 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
Two women
19
Two men
77
Exhibit F: behind the camera
None of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 0% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- H. C. Potter (man)
- Written by
- Norman Panama (man), Melvin Frank (man)
- From the novel by
- Eric Hodgins (gender not listed)
- Produced by
- Melvin Frank (man), Norman Panama (man)
- Shot by
- James Wong Howe (man)
- Edited by
- Harry Marker (man)
- Music by
- Leigh Harline (man)
- Costumes by
- Robert Kalloch (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 4 men
-
Sound
0 women, 4 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 28 on average. Men: 52 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Sharyn Moffett 11, Connie Marshall 14, Myrna Loy 42, Louise Beavers 46
Men
Cary Grant 44, Melvyn Douglas 46, Ian Wolfe 51, Tito Vuolo 55, Reginald Denny 56, Harry Shannon 57
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 82 scenes and 1,073 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
