# What Major Motion Picture Had the Smallest Cast? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 19, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818 "2005-08-19T22:58:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/1 "2005-08-19T22:58:00Z")
What major motion picture, released since, say, 1960, has the smallest cast? By “cast” I mean “people who appear on the screen, whether or not they say anything (and that includes extras).” I don’t mean “people whose photographs appear on the screen.” Crowd scenes are included, so if, for example, the movie shows only one guy for the first 119 minutes, then in minute 120 he’s in a full baseball stadium, then the cast is \>1. I nominate _The Others_ (2001). IMDB only lists 14 people, and most of those are on-screen for a minute or less (some of them for only a few seconds, and don’t say any words). Of the fourteen, only six of them are in the movie for more than a few minutes. But they’re on the screen all the same, so they count. Anyhoo, can anyone top this? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/2 "2005-08-19T23:17:11Z")
**Sleuth** The IMDb lists six cast members, and I think even that is an exaggeration. [spoiler]There’s a credit for someone playing Inspector Doppler, but that’s to not give away that it’s really Milo Tindle (Michael Caine) in disguise. I’ve seen this movie once, on broadcast TV. Maybe they cut some bits out, but I only remember Olivier and Caine in the entire movie.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/3 "2005-08-19T23:25:58Z")
**My Dinner With Andre** (1981)…four actors, two of whom are the waiter and bartender. Cast Wallace Shawn Andre Gregory Jean Lenauer Roy Butler ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/4 "2005-08-19T23:26:35Z")
[My Dinner with Andre](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082783/fullcredits) 4 members. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/5 "2005-08-19T23:29:17Z")
_The World, the Flesh, and the Devil_, 1959 > **[The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053454/)** > > The World, the Flesh and the Devil: Directed by Ranald MacDougall. With Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer. A miner trapped in a cave-in resurfaces, and upon discovering mankind has been wiped out in a nuclear holocaust, sets out to find... Three cast members. I saw it on television after it came out, and it was the first “post-apocalyptic” scenario I’d ever seen. Kind of freaked me out as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/6 "2005-08-19T23:30:30Z")
**Give 'em Hell, Harry!** (1975) James Whitmore as Harry S Truman and that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/7 "2005-08-19T23:34:29Z")
Since you didn’t specify fiction or whatever, how about **Swimming to Cambodia**? IIRC, there is only one person in it–Spalding Gray.I win! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/8 "2005-08-19T23:40:34Z")
\*Give 'em hell, Harry \*, a one man show about Harry Truman should be considered a major motion picture. James Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/9 "2005-08-19T23:45:21Z")
**[Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061184/fullcredits)** had four cast members: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Sega and Sandy Dennis. The IMDB page says there was a fifth, a Frank Flanagan who played the “Host of Inn (uncredited)”. I don’t remember him, nor do I remember anything about an inn. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/10 "2005-08-19T23:48:38Z")
Robert Altman’s **Secret Honor** had a cast of one: Philip Baker Hall as Richard Nixon. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/11 "2005-08-19T23:50:36Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > **Give 'em Hell, Harry!** (1975) > > James Whitmore as Harry S Truman > > and that’s all. Also [Bill Cosby: Himself](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083652/fullcredits). And he wrote and directed, unlike Whitmore and Gray. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/12 "2005-08-19T23:52:57Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > [My Dinner with Andre](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082783/fullcredits) > 4 members. IIRC, there are a number of people in the background during their conversation, and Wallace Shawn looks out the window from his cab on the way home, so that’s even more people (according to the rules of the OP). ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/13 "2005-08-19T23:55:09Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Also [Bill Cosby: Himself](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083652/fullcredits). > > And he wrote and directed, unlike Whitmore and Gray. Yeah, but this is essentially a one-man stand-up concert performance. It’s not a fiction film, which I think should be a condition, plus…are you absolutely sure there are no shots of the audience at all? ---
**Author:** ![monospectacular](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@monospectacular](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monospectacular)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/14 "2005-08-19T23:59:54Z")
Is it really fair to include one-person shows? Several comedians have concert movies and there are broadway one-person acts that are filmed, so it seems that the criteria should include a film or play with dialogue and a person in one character for the duration of a single story. What do you think? I was going to mention Oleana ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110722/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110722/)), but there were extras milling about the campus in a couple of scenes. ---
**Author:** ![monospectacular](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@monospectacular](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monospectacular)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/15 "2005-08-20T00:07:46Z")
Duh. Stupid me. Scratch ‘play’ from my last post, unless it’s one that’s been filmed, in which case it would simply be a film. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/16 "2005-08-20T00:16:17Z")
\ ***Alien** \* (1979) only had 7 characters in it…plus the alien. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/17 "2005-08-20T00:20:00Z")
How many did **Castaway** have with Tom Hanks? They compared it to the Jimmy Stewart movie about Charles Lindbergh, in that a fine actor had to carry the bulk of the movie alone. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/18 "2005-08-20T00:22:00Z")
According to the criteria mentioned in the OP, most animated feature films should fit the bill. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/19 "2005-08-20T00:26:33Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > \ ***Alien** \* (1979) only had 7 characters in it…plus the alien. You forgot Jonesy! ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/20 "2005-08-20T00:28:10Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > How many did **Castaway** have with Tom Hanks? They compared it to the Jimmy Stewart movie about Charles Lindbergh, in that a fine actor had to carry the bulk of the movie alone. A huge section in the middle with just Hanks and a volleyball, but bookended by segments teeming with people. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818.md?page=2)