Fails the Bechdel test
The Hospital
1972. Directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Paddy Chayefsky.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
17 women characters. 10 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
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
Dr. Herbert Bock (George C. Scott), the chief of medicine in a New York City teaching hospital, is contemplating suicide. He's impotent, his wife has left him, and his children aren't speaking to him. His hospital is also suffering from a recent spate of inexplicable deaths. In the midst of these setbacks, Bock is romantically drawn to the much younger Barbara Drummond (Dame Diana Rigg), whose father is a patient. As Barbara restores Bock's will to live, it turns out that the hospital deaths are murders.
- Released
- 11 May 1972
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Mystery
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 72 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 7 wins & 5 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Bock 168 lines, man
- Barbara 64 lines, woman
- Drummond 33 lines, man
- Sundstrom 27 lines, man
- Milton Mead 26 lines, man
- Welbeck 24 lines, man
- Brubaker 23 lines, man
- Dr. Morse 20 lines
- Mrs. Cushing 20 lines, woman
- Mrs. Christie 19 lines, woman
Full cast, 68 people
- George C. Scott as Dr. Herbert Bock
- Diana Rigg as Barbara Drummond
- Barnard Hughes as Drummond
- Richard Dysart as Dr. Welbeck
- Stephen Elliott as Dr. Sundstrom
- Donald Harron as Milton Mead
- Andrew Duncan as William Mead
- Nancy Marchand as Mrs. Christie
- Jordan Charney as Hitchcock
- Roberts Blossom as Guernsey
- Lenny Baker as Dr. Schaefer
- Richard Hamilton as Dr. Ronald Casey
- Arthur Junaluska as Mr. Blacktree
- Kate Harrington as Nurse Dunne
- Katherine Helmond as Marilyn Mead
- David Hooks as Dr. Einhorn
- Frances Sternhagen as Mrs. Cushing
- Robert Walden as Dr. Brubaker
- William Perlow as Cardiac Arrest Doctor
- Bette Henritze as Operating Room Nurse
- Rehn Scofield as Dr. Spezio
- Dora Weissman as Lady in the Hospital
- Carolyn Krigbaum as Dr. Bock's Secretary
- Paddy Chayefsky as Opening Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
- Robert Anthony as Dr. Elroy Ives (uncredited)
- Leigh Beery as Mead's Secretary (uncredited)
- Cynthia Belgrave as Nurse Reardon (uncredited)
- Norman Berns as Dr. Biegelman (uncredited)
- Jacqueline Brookes as Dr. Immelman (uncredited)
- Lonnie Burr as Intern (uncredited)
- Stockard Channing as E.R. Nurse (uncredited)
- Alex Colon as Young Lord (uncredited)
- Matthew Cowles as Intern Chandler (uncredited)
- Reid Cruickshanks as Chief Engineer (uncredited)
- Anita Dangler as Paranoid Lady (uncredited)
- Jean David as Stephanie McGuire (uncredited)
- Lorrie Davis as Nurse Divine (uncredited)
- Dawn Powell Dell as Hospital Visitor (uncredited)
- Dennis Dugan as E.R. Doctor (uncredited)
- Milton Earl Forrest as Militant Leader (uncredited)
- Julie Garfield as Nurse Perez (uncredited)
- Richard Goode as Dr. Sutcliffe (uncredited)
- Nat Grant as Black Panther (uncredited)
- Sarina C. Grant as Nurse X (uncredited)
- Christopher Guest as Resident (uncredited)
- Nat Horne as Patient (uncredited)
- Bette Howard as Young Mother (uncredited)
- Tresa Hughes as Mrs. Donovan (uncredited)
- Bruce Kornbluth as Young Activist Doctor (uncredited)
- Bill Lazarus as Police Captain (uncredited)
- Paul Mace as Intern Ambler (uncredited)
- Nancy MacKay as Sheilah (uncredited)
- Tony Major as Ambulance Attendant (uncredited)
- Shawn McAllister as Medical Intern (uncredited)
- Joy Nicholson as Sundstrom's Secretary (uncredited)
- Bob O'Connell as Policeman (uncredited)
- Angie Ortega as Nurse Teresa Campanella (uncredited)
- Janet Paul as Emergency Room Receptionist (uncredited)
- Lou Polan as Dr. Lagerman (uncredited)
- Paul B. Price as Nameless Man (uncredited)
- Janet Sarno as Nurse Rivers (uncredited)
- Sab Shimono as Operating Room Staff Member (uncredited)
- Marilyn Sokol as Lady Lib. (uncredited)
- Tom Spratley as Mitgang (uncredited)
- John Tremaine as Doctor (uncredited)
- Tracey Walter as Man in Crowd (uncredited)
- Gena Wheeler as Holding Nurse (uncredited)
- Lydia Wilen as Emergency Nurse (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
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, 28 are women's.
172 lines from women, 449 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
17 women and 30 men in the cast. 10 women and 29 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 17 of 704.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 82 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 (3,470), men 73% (9,196). Women have 28% 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
3
Two men
33
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 10 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 6% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Arthur Hiller (man)
- Written by
- Paddy Chayefsky (man)
- Produced by
- Howard Gottfried (man), Paddy Chayefsky (man)
- Shot by
- Victor J. Kemper (man)
- Edited by
- Eric Albertson (gender not listed)
- Music by
- Morris Surdin (gender not listed)
- Production design by
- Gene Rudolf (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Frank L. Thompson (man)
- Cast by
- Marion Dougherty (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
1 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 0 men, 4 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 38 on average. Men: 46 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Diana Rigg 33, Nancy Marchand 43
Men
Jordan Charney 34, Richard Dysart 42, George C. Scott 44, Donald Harron 47, Roberts Blossom 47, Stephen Elliott 53, Barnard Hughes 56
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 704 lines of dialogue. How the test works
