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Passes the Bechdel test

Ninotchka

1939. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder and Walter Reisch.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    15 women characters. 5 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 2 scenes out of 2.
  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 Ninotchka

The film

Only the royal suite at the grandest hotel in Paris has a safe large enough for the jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana. So the three Russians who have come to sell the jewels settle into the suite until a higher ranking official is dispatched to find out what is delaying the sale. She is Ninotchka, a no-nonsense woman who fascinates Count Leon who had been the faithful retainer of the Grand Duchess. The Grand Duchess will give up all claim to the jewels if Ninotchka will fly away from the count.

Released
23 Nov 1939
Genres
Comedy, Romance
Rated
Approved
IMDb
7.8 / 10
Awards
Nominated for 4 Oscars. 5 wins & 6 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Ninotchka 334 lines, woman
  2. Leon 321 lines, man
  3. Swana 133 lines, woman
  4. Iranoff 85 lines, man
  5. Buljanoff 81 lines, man
  6. Kopalski 74 lines, man
  7. Anna 29 lines, woman
  8. Official 23 lines, man
  9. Gaston 18 lines, man
  10. Manager 16 lines, man
Full cast, 57 people
  • Greta Garbo as Nina "Ninotchka" Ivanovna Yakushova
  • Melvyn Douglas as Count Leon d'Algout
  • Ina Claire as Grand Duchess Swana
  • Bela Lugosi as Commissar Razinin
  • Sig Ruman as Comrade Iranoff
  • Felix Bressart as Comrade Buljanoff
  • Alexander Granach as Comrade Kopalski
  • Gregory Gaye as Count Alexis Rakonin
  • Rolfe Sedan as Hotel Manager
  • Edwin Maxwell as Mercier
  • Richard Carle as Gaston
  • George Davis as Porter at Railroad Station (uncredited)
  • Dorothy Adams as Swana's Maid Jacqueline (uncredited)
  • Monya Andre as Gossip (uncredited)
  • Nino Bellini as Swana's Restaurant Guest (uncredited)
  • Wilda Bennett as Swana's Restaurant Guest (uncredited)
  • Symona Boniface as Gossip (uncredited)
  • Frederika Brown as Swana's Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
  • Emilie Cabanne as Gossip (uncredited)
  • Paul Ellis as Minor Role (uncredited)
  • Fred Farrell as Attendant (uncredited)
  • Frank Fletcher as Minor Role (uncredited)
  • Bess Flowers as Gossip (uncredited)
  • Mary Forbes as Lady Lavenham (uncredited)
  • Jody Gilbert as Streetcar Conductress - Moscow Roommate (uncredited)
  • Lawrence Grant as General Savitsky (uncredited)
  • Jennifer Gray as Cigarette Girl (uncredited)
  • Winifred Harris as English Lady Getting Visa (uncredited)
  • Ray Hendricks as Waiter (uncredited)
  • William Irving as Bartender (uncredited)
  • Hans Joby as Man at Railroad Station (uncredited)
  • Charles Judels as Cafe Owner Pere Mathieu (uncredited)
  • Armand Kaliz as Louis the Headwaiter (uncredited)
  • Ernst Lubitsch as Himself - Director in Trailer (uncredited)
  • Peggy Moran as First Cigarette Girl (uncredited)
  • Sandra Morgan as Gossip (uncredited)
  • Lucille Pinson as German Woman at Railroad Station (uncredited)
  • Albert Pollet as Waiter (uncredited)
  • Frank Reicher as Soviet Lawyer (uncredited)
  • Constantine Romanoff as Man in Restaurant (uncredited)
  • Alexander Schoenberg as Bearded Eiffel Tower Tourist (uncredited)
  • Harry Semels as Gurganov (uncredited)
  • Tamara Shayne as Moscow Roommate Anna (uncredited)
  • Florence Shirley as Swana's Phone Friend Marianne (uncredited)
  • George Sorel as Swana's Restaurant Guest (uncredited)
  • Edwin Stanley as Soviet Lawyer (uncredited)
  • Kay Stewart as Cigarette Girl (uncredited)
  • George Tobias as Russian Visa Official (uncredited)
  • Jacques Vanaire as Hotel Desk Clerk (uncredited)
  • Ellinor Vanderveer as Gossip (uncredited)
  • Paul Weigel as Vladimir, with Letter from Leon (uncredited)
  • Elizabeth Williams as Indignant Woman (uncredited)
  • Marek Windheim as Manager (uncredited)
  • Wolfgang Zilzer as Taxi Driver (uncredited)
  • Charles Fogel as Club Patron (uncredited)
  • Dick Gordon as Club Patron (uncredited)
  • Herschel Graham as Club Patron (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 2

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 1184364
2 to 2332325

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.
NINOTCHKA: Come in. CIGARETTE GIRLS: Hello! Hello! Cigarettes? NINOTCHKA: Comrades, you seem to have been smoking a lot.
SWANA: How do you do? NINOTCHKA: How do you do?
SWANA: Poor Madame Yakushova... here we are talking in mysteries.... I'm sure you wonder what it's all about. NINOTCHKA: Not at all.... I understand perfectly, Count d'Algout gave you a dog. You made it very clear, madame. SWANA: Dear me... I must be losing my finesse. If I'm not careful I'll be understood by everybody.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 43 are women's.

516 lines from women, 689 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

15 women and 31 men in the cast. 5 women and 25 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 50 of 1,234. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 84 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

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

Words spoken

Women speak 45% of the words (7,132), men 55% (8,670). Women have 43% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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

None of the 9 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 0% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Ernst Lubitsch (man)
Written by
Charles Brackett (man), Billy Wilder (man), Walter Reisch (man)
Story by
Melchior Lengyel (man)
Shot by
William H. Daniels (man)
Edited by
Gene Ruggiero (man)
Music by
Werner R. Heymann (man)
Costumes by
Adrian (man)

The crew, department by department

  • Sound

    0 women, 7 men, 1 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed

  • Art

    0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed

  • Writing

    0 women, 4 men

  • Directing

    0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed

  • Production

    0 women, 2 men

  • Editing

    0 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 40 on average. Men: 48 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Greta Garbo 34, Ina Claire 46

Men

Melvyn Douglas 38, Gregory Gaye 39, Rolfe Sedan 43, Felix Bressart 47, Alexander Granach 49, Edwin Maxwell 53, Sig Ruman 55, Bela Lugosi 57

Exhibit H: the money

It made 1.7 times what it cost.

Budget
$1.4 million
Box office
$2.3 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 2 scenes and 1,234 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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