Passes the Bechdel test

Peeping Tom

Name: Peeping Tom
Released: 1960

1960. Directed by Michael Powell, written by Leo Marks.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
12 women characters. 7 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 132.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.

The film

Mark Lewis, works as a focus puller in a British film studio. On his off hours, he supplies a local porno shop with cheesecake photos and also dabbles in filmmaking. A lonely, unfriendly, sexually repressed fellow, Mark is obsessed with the effects of fear and how they are registered on the face and behavior of the frightened. This obsession dates from the time when, as a child, he served as the subject of some cold-blooded experiments in terror conducted by his own scientist father. As a grown man, Mark becomes a compulsive murderer who kills women and records their contorted features and dying gasps on film. His ongoing project is a documentary on fear. With 16mm camera in hand, he accompanies a prostitute to her room and stabs her with a blade concealed in his tripod, all the while photographing her contorted face in the throes of terror and death. Alone in his room, he surrounds himself with the sights and sounds of terror: taped screams, black-and-white "home movies" of convulsed faces. At his house, he meets Helen Stephens, a young woman who lives with her blind mother in a downstairs flat. She visits his flat, where he shows her black-and-white films that were taken of him when he was a child. She is horrified to see that his father used him as a guinea pig in various experiments, taking movies of his reactions of fear.

Released: 16 May 1960
Genres: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Rated: Not Rated
IMDb: 7.6 / 10
Awards: 1 win total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Mark 373 lines, man
Helen 278 lines, woman
Mrs. Stephens 101 lines, woman
Vivian 90 lines, woman
Inspector 45 lines
Mr. Peters 35 lines, man
Milly 33 lines, woman
Baden 28 lines, man
Clapper Boy 25 lines, man
Tony 24 lines

Full cast, 41 people

Karlheinz Böhm as Mark Lewis
Moira Shearer as Vivian
Anna Massey as Helen Stephens
Maxine Audley as Mrs. Stephens
Brenda Bruce as Dora
Miles Malleson as Elderly Gentleman Customer
Esmond Knight as Arthur Baden
Martin Miller as Dr. Rosen
Michael Goodliffe as Don Jarvis
Jack Watson as Chief Insp. Gregg
Shirley Anne Field as Pauline Shields
Pamela Green as Milly
John Barrard as Small Man (uncredited)
Robert Crewdson as Shop Assistant on Film Set (uncredited)
Nigel Davenport as Det. Sgt. Miller (uncredited)
Michael Powell as Mark's Father - A.N. Lewis (uncredited)
Susan Travers as Lorraine the Model (uncredited)
Keith Baxter as Det. Baxter (uncredited)
John Chappell as Clapper Boy (uncredited)
Roland Curram as Young Man in Sports Car (uncredited)
John Dunbar as Police Doctor (uncredited)
Maurice Durant as Publicity Chief (uncredited)
Paddi Edwards as Girl Electrician (uncredited)
Cornelia Frances as Girl in Sports Car Leaving Studio (uncredited)
Veronica Hurst as Miss Simpson - Jarvis' Secretary (uncredited)
M. Le Compte as Lover in Garden (uncredited)
Mme. Le Compte as Lover in Garden (uncredited)
Bartlett Mullins as Mr. Peters - News Agent Shop Owner (uncredited)
Pete Murray as Young Man Embracing Girl (uncredited)
Margaret Neale as Mark's Stepmother (uncredited)
Columba Powell as Mark as a Child (uncredited)
Guy Kingsley Poynter as P. Tate - Studio Cameraman (uncredited)
Frankie Reidy as Mark's Mother on Deathbed (uncredited)
Alan Rolfe as Store Detective (uncredited)
Frank Singuineau as Electrician #1 (uncredited)
Peggy Thorpe-Bates as Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)
Robert Vossler as Policeman (uncredited)
Brian Wallace as Tony - Downstairs Lodger in Lewis' House (uncredited)
Brian Worth as Assistant Director (uncredited)
Jack Carter as St John's Medic (uncredited)
Joanna Vogel as Party Guest (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 12% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 132

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 3	1	0
4 to 6	0	0
7 to 9	0	1
10 to 12	0	41
13 to 15	32	19
16 to 18	1	0
19 to 21	18	11
22 to 24	46	36
25 to 27	40	36
28 to 30	43	43
31 to 33	12	23
34 to 36	2	0
37 to 39	0	0
40 to 42	0	0
43 to 45	0	0
46 to 48	0	0
49 to 51	9	3
52 to 54	29	24
55 to 57	5	7
58 to 60	2	3
61 to 63	96	38
64 to 66	7	19
67 to 69	0	4
70 to 72	1	10
73 to 75	1	4
76 to 78	0	46
79 to 81	0	1
82 to 84	25	4
85 to 87	36	19
88 to 90	37	22
91 to 93	45	31
94 to 96	10	5
97 to 99	0	12
100 to 102	3	28
103 to 105	0	7
106 to 108	0	2
109 to 111	0	0
112 to 114	0	0
115 to 117	1	8
118 to 120	7	4
121 to 123	6	0
124 to 126	0	0
127 to 129	0	1
130 to 132	25	32

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.

MRS. STEPHENS: I want a word with you. HELEN: I hate people who chatter in films - but there's so much I want to ask.

MRS. STEPHENS: And that poor girl... where did she work? HELEN: At Brookwood. MRS. STEPHENS: We were wondering if you knew her?

HELEN: Darling, may I tell you about your supper? MRS. STEPHENS: No... go and be told about yours! Goodbye, Mark... I expect we shall meet again.

HELEN: Darling, we forgot to toss. HELEN: Supper's laid out in the kitchen. MRS. STEPHENS: If you're not back early, you'll find me laid out with it! HELEN: We'll be early! Good night, darling.

MRS. STEPHENS: Know much about films? HELEN: Come on then...

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 50 are women's.

540 lines from women, 544 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

12 women and 19 men in the cast. 7 women and 8 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 1,236. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 88 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 51% of the words (3,765), men 49% (3,602). Women have 50% 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

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

None of the 6 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 4% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Michael Powell (man)
Written by: Leo Marks (man)
Produced by: Michael Powell (man)
Shot by: Otto Heller (man)
Edited by: Noreen Ackland (gender not listed)
Music by: Brian Easdale (man)

The crew, department by department

Sound

0 women, 7 men, 1 not listed
Production

0 women, 2 men, 4 not listed
Art

0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
Camera

0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
Directing

0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
Other crew

0 women, 3 men
Editing

0 women, 0 men, 3 not listed
Costume & Make-Up

1 women, 1 men

Women
Men
Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 33 on average. Men: 51 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Anna Massey 22, Moira Shearer 34, Maxine Audley 36, Brenda Bruce 41

Men

Karlheinz Böhm 32, Jack Watson 44, Michael Goodliffe 45, Esmond Knight 53, Martin Miller 60, Miles Malleson 71

Exhibit H: the money

It made 56% of what it cost.

Budget: $150,000
Box office: $83,957

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 132 scenes and 1,236 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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