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Passes the Bechdel test

The Maltese Falcon

1941. Directed by John Huston, written by John Huston and Dashiell Hammett.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    3 women characters. 3 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 1 scene out of 72.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.

Poster for The Maltese Falcon

The film

Spade and Archer is the name of a San Francisco detective agency. That's for Sam Spade and Miles Archer. The two men are partners, but Sam doesn't like Miles much. A knockout, who goes by the name of Miss Wonderly, walks into their office; and by that night everything's changed. Miles is dead. And so is a man named Floyd Thursby. It seems Miss Wonderly is surrounded by dangerous men. There's Joel Cairo, who uses gardenia-scented calling cards. There's Kasper Gutman, with his enormous girth and feigned civility. Her only hope of protection comes from Sam, who is suspected by the police of one or the other murder. More murders are yet to come, and it will all be because of these dangerous men -- and their lust for a statuette of a bird: the Maltese Falcon.

Released
18 Oct 1941
Genres
Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Rated
Approved
IMDb
7.9 / 10
Metascore
97 / 100
Awards
Nominated for 3 Oscars. 8 wins & 4 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Spade 478 lines, man
  2. Brigid 112 lines, woman
  3. Gutman 110 lines, man
  4. Cairo 61 lines, man
  5. Effie 57 lines, woman
  6. Dundy 43 lines, man
  7. Polhaus 35 lines, man
  8. Miss Wonderly 29 lines, woman
  9. Iva 24 lines, woman
  10. Luke 11 lines, man
Full cast, 22 people
  • Humphrey Bogart as Samuel Spade
  • Mary Astor as Brigid O'Shaughnessy
  • Gladys George as Iva Archer
  • Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo
  • Barton MacLane as Lt. of Detectives Dundy
  • Lee Patrick as Effie Perine
  • Sydney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman
  • Ward Bond as Detective Tom Polhaus
  • Jerome Cowan as Miles Archer
  • Elisha Cook Jr. as Wilmer Cook
  • James Burke as Luke
  • Murray Alper as Frank Richman
  • John Hamilton as District Attorney Bryan
  • Charles Drake as Reporter (uncredited)
  • Chester Gan as Bit Part (uncredited)
  • Creighton Hale as Stenographer (uncredited)
  • Robert Homans as Policeman (uncredited)
  • William Hopper as Reporter (uncredited)
  • Walter Huston as Captain Jacoby (uncredited)
  • Hank Mann as Reporter (uncredited)
  • Jack Mower as Announcer (uncredited)
  • Emory Parnell as Ship's Mate (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 72

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 202
3 to 42724
5 to 6032
7 to 801
9 to 10450
11 to 121817
13 to 142834
15 to 16442
17 to 1802
19 to 2000
21 to 2200
23 to 241919
25 to 2644
27 to 2822
29 to 3034
31 to 321754
33 to 341698
35 to 3698
37 to 382024
39 to 40042
41 to 42022
43 to 4407
45 to 46039
47 to 4800
49 to 50833
51 to 521115
53 to 5400
55 to 5601
57 to 5804
59 to 6008
61 to 6202
63 to 6415
65 to 6622
67 to 685117
69 to 702166
71 to 7235

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scene

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
EFFIE: Will you come in, Miss Wonderly? MISS WONDERLY: Thank you.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 22 are women's.

222 lines from women, 785 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

3 women and 19 men in the cast. 3 women and 15 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 6 of 1,034. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 114 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

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

Words spoken

Women speak 21% of the words (3,010), men 79% (11,240). Women have 22% 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

None of the 7 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 0% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
John Huston (man)
Written by
John Huston (man)
From the novel by
Dashiell Hammett (man)
Shot by
Arthur Edeson (man)
Edited by
Thomas Richards (man)
Music by
Adolph Deutsch (man)
Costumes by
Orry-Kelly (man)

The crew, department by department

  • Camera

    0 women, 1 men, 5 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed

  • Directing

    0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed

  • Sound

    0 women, 5 men

  • Art

    0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed

  • Production

    0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed

  • Other crew

    0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed

  • Writing

    0 women, 2 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 38 on average. Men: 42 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Mary Astor 35, Lee Patrick 39, Gladys George 41

Men

Peter Lorre 37, Elisha Cook Jr. 37, Barton MacLane 38, Ward Bond 38, Humphrey Bogart 41, Jerome Cowan 44, Sydney Greenstreet 61

Exhibit H: the money

It made 4.7 times what it cost.

Budget
$375,000
Box office
$1.8 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 72 scenes and 1,034 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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