Karl Struss

Director Of Photography

About

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Also Known As

Karl O. Struss

Birth Place

New York City, New York, USA

Born

November 30, 1886

Died

December 16, 1981

Biography

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Began his career as a commercial photographer and entered film in 1919, serving a three-year stint as cameraman for Cecil B. DeMille. Struss then went freelance and gained renown for his work on "Ben Hur" (1926), particularly in his use of filters to effect visual transformations--a technique he repeated to great effect in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1932).Struss received widespread recog...

Filmography

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Two Nights With Cleopatra (1963)

Director of Photography

Fatal Desire (1963)

Director of Photography

Here Come the Jets (1959)

Director of Photography

The Rebel Set (1959)

Director of Photography

The Alligator People (1959)

Director of Photography

Counterplot (1959)

Director of Photography

Photos & Videos

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Fly, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) The Gravity Of The Crime

Fly, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) I've Killed Andre

Biography

Began his career as a commercial photographer and entered film in 1919, serving a three-year stint as cameraman for Cecil B. DeMille. Struss then went freelance and gained renown for his work on "Ben Hur" (1926), particularly in his use of filters to effect visual transformations--a technique he repeated to great effect in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1932).

Struss received widespread recognition for his collaboration with Charles Rosher on F. W. Murnau's "Sunrise" (1927) and, following several collaborations with D.W. Griffith, began a fruitful 18-year association with Paramount. Other memorable work includes his contributions to the atmospheric thriller, "Island of Lost Souls" (1932) and Charlie Chaplin's "Limelight" (1952).

Filmography

Cinematography (Feature Film)

Two Nights With Cleopatra (1963)

Director of Photography

Fatal Desire (1963)

Director of Photography

Here Come the Jets (1959)

Director of Photography

The Rebel Set (1959)

Director of Photography

The Alligator People (1959)

Director of Photography

Counterplot (1959)

Director of Photography

The Sad Horse (1959)

Director of Photography

The Hot Angel (1958)

Director of Photography

Director of Photography

The Rawhide Trail (1958)

Director of Photography

Director of Photography

Director Of Photography

She Devil (1957)

Director of Photography

The Deerslayer (1957)

Director of Photography

Director of Photography

The Mesa Of Lost Women (1956)

Cinematographer

The Three-D Follies (1953)

Photographer, "Carmenesque"

Mesa of Lost Women (1953)

Director of Photography

Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953)

Limelight (1953)

Director of Photography

Lady Possessed (1952)

Director of Photography

Face to Face (1952)

Photographer "The Secret Sharer"

Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952)

Rose of Cimarron (1952)

Director of Photography

Tarzan's Peril (1951)

Father's Wild Game (1950)

The Return of Jesse James (1950)

Director of Photography

The Texan Meets Calamity Jane (1950)

Director of Photography

It's a Small World (1950)

Director of Photography

Rocketship X-M (1950)

Director of Photography

Director of Photography

Siren of Atlantis (1949)

Director of Photography

Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949)

Call of the Forest (1949)

Director of Photography

The Dude Goes West (1948)

Director of Photography

The Macomber Affair (1947)

Cinematographer

Heaven Only Knows (1947)

Director of Photography

Suspense (1946)

Director of Photography

Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946)

Cinematographer

Wonder Man (1945)

Director of Photography

Bring on the Girls (1945)

Director of Photography

Frenchman's Creek (1944)

1st Camera, 3rd unit

Rainbow Island (1944)

Director of Photography

And the Angels Sing (1944)

Riding High (1943)

Director of Photography

Happy Go Lucky (1943)

Director of Photography

Journey into Fear (1942)

Director of Photography

Caught in the Draft (1941)

Director of Photography

Aloma of the South Seas (1941)

Director of Photography

The Great Dictator (1941)

Director of Photography

Rhythm on the River (1940)

Fill-in Photographer

Paris Honeymoon (1939)

Island of Lost Men (1939)

Some Like It Hot (1939)

The Star Maker (1939)

Thanks for the Memory (1938)

Every Day's a Holiday (1938)

Sing You Sinners (1938)

Dangerous to Know (1938)

Waikiki Wedding (1937)

Mountain Music (1937)

Thunder Trail (1937)

Double or Nothing (1937)

Let's Make a Million (1936)

Too Many Parents (1936)

Anything Goes (1936)

Rhythm on the Range (1936)

Hollywood Boulevard (1936)

Go West Young Man (1936)

The Preview Murder Mystery (1936)

Two for Tonight (1935)

Goin' to Town (1935)

Mississippi (1935)

Original Photographer

Four Frightened People (1934)

The Pursuit of Happiness (1934)

Here Is My Heart (1934)

Belle of the Nineties (1934)

Tonight Is Ours (1933)

The Story of Temple Drake (1933)

Disgraced (1933)

The Woman Accused (1933)

Torch Singer (1933)

The Girl in 419 (1933)

One Sunday Afternoon (1933)

The World and the Flesh (1932)

Dancers in the Dark (1932)

Forgotten Commandments (1932)

The Man from Yesterday (1932)

Two Kinds of Women (1932)

Guilty As Hell (1932)

The Sign of the Cross (1932)

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Cinematographer

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

Women Love Once (1931)

The Road to Reno (1931)

Up Pops the Devil (1931)

Murder by the Clock (1931)

Director of Photography

Be Yourself! (1930)

Director of Photography

One Romantic Night (1930)

Director of Photography

Abraham Lincoln (1930)

Director of Photography

The Bad One (1930)

Director of Photography

Danger Lights (1930)

Director of Photography

Lady of the Pavements (1929)

Taming of the Shrew (1929)

Director of Photography

Coquette (1929)

Director of Photography

The Battle of the Sexes (1928)

Director of Photography

The Night Watch (1928)

Director of Photography

Drums of Love (1928)

Director of Photography

Babe Comes Home (1927)

Director of Photography

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Meet the Prince (1926)

Director of Photography

Forever After (1926)

Director of Photography

Hell's 400 (1926)

Director of Photography

Sparrows (1926)

Director of Photography

The Winding Stair (1925)

Director of Photography

The Legend of Hollywood (1924)

Director of Photography

Poisoned Paradise: The Forbidden Story of Monte Carlo (1924)

Director of Photography

White Man (1924)

Director of Photography

Idle Tongues (1924)

Director of Photography

Daughters of the Rich (1923)

Director of Photography

Poor Men's Wives (1923)

Director of Photography

Mothers-in-Law (1923)

Director of Photography

Director of Photography

The Hero (1923)

Director of Photography

Fool's Paradise (1922)

Director of Photography

Thorns and Orange Blossoms (1922)

Director of Photography

The Law and the Woman (1922)

Director of Photography

Rich Men's Wives (1922)

Director of Photography

Fools First (1922)

Director of Photography

Saturday Night (1922)

Director of Photography

Director of Photography

The Affairs of Anatol (1921)

Director of Photography

Something to Think About (1920)

Film Production - Main (Feature Film)

Poisoned Paradise (1924)

Post Production (Feature Film)

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Technicolor tests

Cinematography (Special)

Chaplin Today: Limelight (2003)

Cinematographer

Life Events

1914

Set up own photographic studio in Manhattan; shot portratis and advertisements

1914

Took over Clarence H. White's Photography Studio where he developed the Struss-Lens which provided a diffused, soft-focus look

1919

Went to Hollywood; hired by Cecil B. DeMille

1920

First film as co-cinematographer, "Something to Think About"

1959

Last film prior to retirement, "The Rebel Set"

Videos

Fly, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) The Gravity Of The Crime Vincent Price is Francois, a Quebec industrial scientist, Patricia Owens his sister-in-law Helene, acting serene but claiming to have squished his brother and partner in an industrial press, Herbert Marshall the incredulous Inspector Charas, interruption by an insect, in the original The Fly, 1958.

Fly, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) I've Killed Andre Plenty of portent, opening scene finds Torben Meyer as Gaston the night watch at a Quebec industrial site, Patricia Owens the maybe-mad wife of his boss, Vincent Price her suave brother-in-law on the phone, Kurt Neumann directing the original The Fly, 1958.

Fly, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) You Won't Feel A Thing Totally focused on his new invention, Canadian research scientist Andre (Al, a.k.a. David Hedison), excited over having successfully transported a newspaper, is inspired to try again with the family cat, the first major mishap, in the original The Fly, 1958, from the George Langelaan short story.

Island Of Lost Souls (1932) -- (Movie Clip) Are We Not Men? Accidental guest Parker (Richard Arlen) and Lota (Kathleen Burke), whom he doesn't know is an experimental animal-human hybrid, think they're escaping when they're waylaid by gangs of half-beasts (Bela Lugosi their leader), and Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) arrives to restore order, in Universal's Island Of Lost Souls, 1932.

Island Of Lost Souls (1932) -- (Movie Clip) A Laughing Jackass Paul Hurst as Donahue has the unlucky assignment of escorting Ruth (Leila Hyams), come to find her fiancè Parker (Richard Arlen), on the south sea island where he’s been taken in by mad Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton), knowing nothing as yet about his freaky man-beasts and “bio-anthropological research,” in Island Of Lost Souls, 1932.

Fly, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) You're The First To See A Miracle In a flashback, Helene (Patricia Owens) recalls how her scientist husband Andre (Al Hedison), whom she later crushed, with his cooperation, with industrial machinery, first showed her his expanded lab and his breakthrough in transporting matter, in 20th Century-Fox’s original The Fly, 1958.

Journey Into Fear (1943) -- (Movie Clip) Dearest Stephanie Star Joseph Cotten narrates from a letter to his wife (Ruth Warrick) from the screenplay he co-wrote with co-star Orson Welles from an Eric Ambler novel, meeting local arms rep Kopeikin (Everett Sloane) in WWII Istanbul, and singer Josette (Dolores del Rio), in Journey Into Fear, 1943.

Journey Into Fear (1943) -- (Movie Clip) A Crazy Man Just Shot At Me From the climax on the ledge of a Black Sea hotel, Graham (Joseph Cotten) chased by an assassin and spy (Jack Moss, Eustace Wyatt), his wife (Ruth Warrick) downstairs, Turkish officer Haki (Orson Welles, in a scene he never quite took credit for directing) rescuing, in Journey Into Fear, 1943.

Journey Into Fear (1943) -- (Movie Clip) I Like The Turks Hustled onto a steamer out of Istanbul by officials who insist he’s in danger, American engineer Graham (Joseph Cotten), narrating from a letter to his wife, with acquaintances on board, singer Josette (Dolores del Rio), Kuvetli (Edgar Barrier) and Haller (Eustace Wyatt), in Journey Into Fear, 1943.

Journey Into Fear (1943) -- (Movie Clip) C'est Mon Couer Opening features Banat (Jack Moss), whom we will learn is a freelance assassin in WWII Istanbul, and an an unattributed recording of an old French song, in Journey Into Fear, 1943, screenplay by star Joseph Cotten and supporting player Orson Welles, from an Eric Ambler novel.

Sunrise (1927) -- (Movie Clip) Midsummer Peasant Dance Country couple George O'Brien ("The Man") and Janet Gaynor ("The Wife") excel in a dance at a big city carnival in F.W. Murnau's acclaimed silent film Sunrise, 1927.

Sunrise (1927) -- (Movie Clip) Make The Piggy Roll Janet Gaynor (as "The Wife") and George O'Brien (as "The Man") at a carnival in one of many extraordinary scenes from F.W. Murnau's landmark silent film Sunrise, 1927.

Great Dictator, The - (Original Trailer) A Jewish barber resembles his country's anti-Semitic dictator in Charles Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), featuring the cinematography of Karl Struss (Telluride Film Festival honoree 1980) & Roland Totheroh.

Island of Lost Souls - (Original Trailer) On a remote island, a mad scientist turns wild animals into human monsters in Island of Lost Souls (1932).

Ben-Hur (1925) - (Original Trailer) A rebellious Israelite prince out for vengeance crosses paths with the Messiah in the 1925 version of Ben-Hur starring Ramon Novarro.

Bibliography

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