Fails the Bechdel test
Strangers on a Train
1951. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde and Whitfield Cook.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
12 women characters. 8 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
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 2 out of 3.
The film
Bruno Antony thinks he has the perfect plot to rid himself of his hated father, and when he meets tennis player Guy Haines on a train he thinks he's found the partner he needs to pull it off. His plan is relatively simple: Two strangers each agree to kill someone the other person wants gone. For example, Guy could kill his father and he could get rid of Guy's wife Miriam, freeing him to marry Anne Morton, the beautiful daughter of a U.S. Senator. Guy dismisses it all out of hand, but Bruno goes ahead with his half of the "bargain" and disposes of Miriam. When Guy balks, Bruno makes it clear that he will plant evidence to implicate Guy in her murder if he doesn't get rid of his father. Guy had also made some unfortunate statements about Miriam after she had refused to divorce him. It all leads the police to believe Guy is responsible for the murder, forcing him to deal with Bruno's mad ravings.
- Released
- 30 Jun 1951
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.9 / 10
- Metascore
- 88 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 2 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Guy 201 lines, man
- Bruno 141 lines, man
- Anne 73 lines, woman
- Barbara 37 lines, woman
- Senator 31 lines
- Miriam 25 lines, woman
- Hennessy 24 lines, man
- Umpire 14 lines, man
- Mrs. Anthony 12 lines, woman
- Hammond 10 lines, man
Full cast, 79 people
- Farley Granger as Guy Haines
- Ruth Roman as Anne Morton
- Robert Walker as Bruno Antony
- Leo G. Carroll as Senator Morton
- Patricia Hitchcock as Barbara Morton
- Kasey Rogers as Miriam Haines
- Marion Lorne as Mrs. Antony
- Jonathan Hale as Mr. Antony
- Howard St. John as Captain Turley
- John Brown as Prof. Collins
- Norma Varden as Mrs. Cunningham
- Robert Gist as Leslie Hennessey
- Brooks Benedict as Tennis Umpire (uncredited)
- John Doucette as Detective Hammond (uncredited)
- Harry Hines as Man Under Merry-Go-Round (uncredited)
- Alfred Hitchcock as Man Boarding Train Carrying Double Bass (uncredited)
- Paul McGuire as Train Passenger (uncredited)
- Oliver Cross as Party Guest (uncredited)
- Tom Ferrandini as Linesman (uncredited)
- Stuart Hall as Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited)
- Joel Allen as Policeman (uncredited)
- Murray Alper as Boatman (uncredited)
- Monya Andre as Dowager (uncredited)
- Benjie Bancroft as Police Officer (uncredited)
- Harry Baum as Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited)
- Al Bridge as Tennis Judge (uncredited)
- Joe Brooks as Carnival Patron (uncredited)
- John Butler as Blind Man (uncredited)
- Leonard Carey as Anthony's Butler (uncredited)
- Edward Clark as Miriam's Boss (uncredited)
- Jack Cushingham as Fred Reynolds (uncredited)
- John Daheim as Detective at Merry-Go-Round (uncredited)
- Marilyn Dialon as Girl on Carousel (uncredited)
- Jay Eaton as Party Guest (uncredited)
- Roy Engel as Policeman (uncredited)
- Herbert Evans as Party Guest (uncredited)
- Franklyn Farnum as Party Guest (uncredited)
- Tommy Farrell as Miriam's Boyfriend (uncredited)
- Sam Flint as Train Passenger Requesting Light (uncredited)
- Kay Garrett as Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited)
- Robert Haines as Bus Driver (uncredited)
- Sam Harris as Party Guest (uncredited)
- Edward Hearn as Lieutenant Campbell (uncredited)
- Al Hill as Carnival Game Proprietor (uncredited)
- Mary Alan Hokanson as Secretary (uncredited)
- Edna Holland as Mrs. Joyce (uncredited)
- J. Louis Johnson as Mortons' Butler (uncredited)
- Fred Kelsey as Tennis Match Spectator / Carnival Attendee (uncredited)
- Mike Lally as Detective at Carnival (uncredited)
- Perc Launders as Police Desk Sergeant (uncredited)
- Louis Lettieri as Boy with Balloon (uncredited)
- George Magrill as Policeman at Merry-Go-Round (uncredited)
- Charles Marsh as Bystander at Drain (uncredited)
- Thomas Martin as Party Guest (uncredited)
- David McMahon as Bystander at Drain (uncredited)
- Charles Meredith as Judge Donahue (uncredited)
- Ralph Moody as Seedy Man at Carnival (uncredited)
- Mike Morelli as Boatman (uncredited)
- Roland Morris as Miriam's Boyfriend (uncredited)
- Odette Myrtil as Madame Darville (uncredited)
- Richard Neill as Party Guest (uncredited)
- Barry Norton as Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited)
- Spec O'Donnell as Carnival Patron (uncredited)
- Paul Panzer as Bystander at Merry-Go-Round (uncredited)
- Minna Phillips as Dowager (uncredited)
- Anthony Redondo as Train Passenger (uncredited)
- Georges Renavent as Monsieur Darville (uncredited)
- Suzanne Ridgway as Bystander at Merry-Go-Round (uncredited)
- Dick Ryan as Minister (uncredited)
- Charles Sherlock as Cop (uncredited)
- Janet Stewart as Girl (uncredited)
- Brick Sullivan as Carnival Patron (uncredited)
- Shirley Tegge as Girl (uncredited)
- Laura Treadwell as Mrs. Anderson (uncredited)
- Joe Warfield as Soda Jerk (uncredited)
- Howard Washington as Waiter on Train (uncredited)
- Dick Wessel as Bill (uncredited)
- Chalky Williams as Carnival Patron (uncredited)
- Robert B. Williams as Bystander at Drain (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 11% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 84
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 | 1 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 48 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 52 |
| 9 to 10 | 5 | 4 |
| 11 to 12 | 15 | 14 |
| 13 to 14 | 1 | 5 |
| 15 to 16 | 11 | 15 |
| 17 to 18 | 1 | 6 |
| 19 to 20 | 6 | 1 |
| 21 to 22 | 4 | 42 |
| 23 to 24 | 24 | 15 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 to 28 | 1 | 14 |
| 29 to 30 | 11 | 12 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 12 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 25 | 17 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 8 |
| 39 to 40 | 16 | 29 |
| 41 to 42 | 26 | 19 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 1 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 0 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 13 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 7 |
| 53 to 54 | 14 | 20 |
| 55 to 56 | 8 | 17 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 0 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 4 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 3 |
| 63 to 64 | 3 | 3 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 7 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 2 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 3 |
| 73 to 74 | 3 | 4 |
| 75 to 76 | 2 | 1 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 0 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 2 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 27 |
| 83 to 84 | 4 | 1 |
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, 29 are women's.
180 lines from women, 431 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
12 women and 60 men in the cast. 8 women and 12 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 102 of 690.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 101 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 28% of the words (2,084), men 72% (5,416). Women have 29% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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
Two women
9
Two men
11
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 7 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 14% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Alfred Hitchcock (man)
- Written by
- Czenzi Ormonde (woman), Raymond Chandler (man)
- From the novel by
- Patricia Highsmith (woman)
- Shot by
- Robert Burks (man)
- Edited by
- William H. Ziegler (man)
- Music by
- Dimitri Tiomkin (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Writing
2 women, 2 men
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men
-
Art
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 36 on average. Men: 46 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Patricia Hitchcock 22, Kasey Rogers 25, Ruth Roman 28, Marion Lorne 67
Men
Farley Granger 25, Robert Walker 32, Howard St. John 45, John Brown 47, Jonathan Hale 60, Leo G. Carroll 64
Exhibit G: the money
It made 5.8 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1.2 million
- Box office
- $7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 84 scenes and 690 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
