Bruce Surtees Filmography

And Never Let Her Go

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Mark Harmon, Rachel Ward, Kathryn Morris, Steven Eckholdt, Paul Michael Glaser

Synopsis: Based on a true crime story, the two-part TV movie And Never Let Her Go recounts the disappearance of Anne Marie Fahey in June of 1996, and the subsequent arrest and conviction of her accused murderer. Hired as a secretary by powerful Delaware attorney and gubernatorial aide, Thomas Capano (Mark Harmon Read More

American Tragedy

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Ving Rhames, Ron Silver, Bruno Kirby, Darryl Alan Reed, Nicholas Pryor

Synopsis: The real-life drama of the 1994 O.J. Simpson trial is given quasi-fictional treatment in this two-part CBS miniseries, which aired in November 2000. Much of the miniseries' plot focuses on the battle of egos between defense lawyers Johnnie Cochran (Ving Rhames) and Robert Shapiro (Ron Silver) and Read More

Thin Air: A Spenser Mystery

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Joe Mantegna, Marcia Gay Harden, Yancy Butler, Luis Guzman, Jon Seda

Synopsis: Robert Mantegna stars as tough Boston private eye Spencer in this made-for-cable adaptation of the Robert B. Parker novel Thin Air. It all begins when Lila St. Claire (Yancy Butler, the new bride of police detective Frank Belson (David Ferry), is kidnapped by Latino ganglord Luis DeLeon (Jon Read More

Just a Little Harmless Sex

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Alison Eastwood, Robert Mailhouse, Rachel Hunter, Kimberly Payne Williams, Lauren Hutton

Synopsis: Love, sex, fidelity, and the nearly endless variety of complications they can bring are played for laughs in this sophisticated comedy. Alan (Robert Mailhouse) is driving home on a dark and rainy night when he sees an attractive woman standing by the side of the road. He stops and offers her a Read More

The Lady in Question

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Gene Wilder, Mike Starr, Cherry Jones, Barbara Sukowa, Claire Bloom

Synopsis: Gene Wilder wrote and starred in this detective story produced for the A&E cable television network. Set in 1938, Wilder plays Larry "Cash" Carter, a one-time Broadway theatrical director who has moved to a quiet Connecticut town, where he oversees a community theater group and works as a private Read More

Dash and Lilly

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Sam Shepard, Judy Davis, Bebe Neuwirth, Laurence Luckinbill, David Paymer

Synopsis: Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates directed this made-for-cable feature inspired by the true story of one of America's greatest literary couples, Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett. Hellman (Judy Davis) was an award-winning playwright whose successes included The Children's Hour and The Little Read More

The Substitute

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Tom Berenger, Ernie Hudson, Diane Venora, Marc Anthony, Glenn Plummer

Synopsis: An ex-mercenary (Tom Berenger) becomes a take-no-prisoners teacher in a drug-ridden, gang-infested Miami high school in this campy morality tale about restoring lost American virtues to the inner city. Berenger's character, Shale, has no first name, a shadowy past as a patriotic gun-for-hire, and Read More

The Stars Fell on Henrietta

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Robert Duvall, Aidan Quinn, Frances Fisher, Brian Dennehy, Lexi Randall

Synopsis: This character drama follows the exploits of an aged oil seeker, known only as Mr. Cox, as he roams across Texas in search of black gold. He has a special gift for it and has helped many wildcatters strike it rich. Unfortunately, he has yet to find his own gusher. In 1935, Cox has only a suitcase Read More

Corrina, Corrina

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Liotta, Tina Majorino, Wendy Crewson, Larry Miller, Erica Yohn

Synopsis: In this comedy-drama set in the late 1950s, Manny Singer (Ray Liotta) is a songwriter who makes his living penning jingles for radio and television commercials. Manny's wife has recently died, leaving him an emotionally broken man; Manny buries himself in his work rather than deal with his grief. Read More

The Birds 2: Land's End

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Brad Johnson, Chelsea Field, Tippi Hedren, Jan Rubes, James Naughton

Synopsis: Produced for cable TV, this feeble follow-up to the classic Hitchcock thriller transfers the avian carnage from Bodega Bay to the New England fishing town of Land's End, where a young couple and their two daughters are besieged by squadrons of malicious gulls and their assorted winged cousins. Read More

The Crush

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Cary Elwes, Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Rubin, Amber Benson, Kurtwood Smith

Synopsis: The Crush is a psychological thriller wherein a young man is the object of the obsession of a mentally unbalanced young girl. Journalist Nick Elliot (Cary Elwes) rents the guest house of a wealthy couple. The family's 14-year-old daughter Darien (Alicia Silverstone) flirts with him, and when her Read More

Chains of Gold

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: John Travolta

Synopsis: In this made-for-cable actioner a good-hearted social worker embarks upon a one-man crusade to save Miami teens from getting further involved with a gang of crack dealers. The social worker does this in large part to ease his own guilt at having been responsible for the death of his own son back Read More

That Night

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: C. Thomas Howell, Juliette Lewis, Helen Shaver, Eliza Dushku, John Dossett

Synopsis: Screenwriter Craig Bolotin takes a first stab at directing with That Night, a romantic reminiscence of teen love in 1960s Long Island based on a novel by Alice McDermott. Alice (Eliza Dushku) is a reserved, introspective 12-year-old girl who idealizes her neighbor, high-school student Sheryl (Juliette Lewis Read More

The Super

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Joe Pesci, Vincent Gardenia, Madolyn Smith Osborne, Rubén Blades, Stacey Travis

Synopsis: Joe Pesci stars as Louie Kritski, a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option, which he accepts -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards. Read More

Run

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Kelly Preston, Ken Pogue, Alan C. Peterson, Christopher Lawford

Synopsis: An innocent law student gets accused of murdering a mob chief's son when a casino poker game turns into a fistfight that ends with a fatality. Soon the mob and the corrupt local police are after the kid whose only respite in this film is a short romance with a new-found sweetheart. ~ All Movie Read More

Men Don't Leave

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Jessica Lange, Chris O'Donnell, Arliss Howard, Kathy Bates, Joan Cusack, Charlie Korsmo

Synopsis: Weighed down by her late husband's debts, widow Beth Macauley (Jessica Lange) is compelled to sell her home and move to a less costly locale. She relocates in Baltimore with her resentful sons Chris (Chris O'Donnell) and Matt (Charlie Korsmo) and takes a job at a ramshackle gourmet food store Read More

License to Drive

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Carol Kane, Richard Masur, Heather Graham

Synopsis: Les (Corey Haim) is embarrassed when he fails his driving test in this routine teen comedy. His buddies are depending on him to provide the wheels for the weekend, but Les is more interested in his Saturday date with Mercedes (Heather Graham). Les secretly steals his grandfather's immaculate 1972 Read More

Back to the Beach

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Connie Stevens, Lori Loughlin, Tommy Hinkley

Synopsis: Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello not only starred in the delightfully "retro" Back to the Beach, but also served as executive producers. Appropriately set 25 years after such drive-in faves as Beach Blanket Bingo, the film finds Frankie and Annette as husband and wife, living far from the surf Read More

Ratboy

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Sondra Locke, Robert Townsend, Christopher Hewett, Larry Hankin, Sidney Lassick

Synopsis: This drama follows an unlikely "ratboy" (S.L. Baird) after he is discovered living in a makeshift shelter in a garbage dump. Along comes Nikki Morrison (Sondra Locke, also the director) who meets the half-rodent, half-human creature and takes him over. She talks to a Hollywood producer and holds Read More

Out of Bounds

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Anthony Michael Hall, Jenny Wright, Jeff Kober, Glynn E. Turman, Raymond J. Barry

Synopsis: This teen thriller by Richard Tuggle involves an innocent young man being mistaken for a drug dealer and thief by both the good and the bad guys. Daryl Cage (Anthony Michael Hall) sets off to visit his brother and sister-in-law in L.A. but picks up the wrong bag at the airport baggage claim -- one Read More

Psycho III

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Anthony Perkins, Diana Scarwid, Jeff Fahey, Roberta Maxwell, Hugh Gillin

Synopsis: For his third outing as disturbed innkeeper Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins directed as well as starred in the thriller Psycho III. This time out, Norman is still manning the desk at the Bates Motel, where he now has an assistant, Duane (Jeff Fahey), and a new long-term tenant, Maureen Coyle (Diana Scarwid Read More

The Best of Times

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Robin Williams, Kurt Russell, Pamela Reed, Holly Palance, Donald Moffat

Synopsis: Small-town banker Robin Williams has never been able to live down the fact that he dropped an important pass during a crucial high-school football game. Likewise tainted for life is the team's star quarterback Kurt Russell, now a garage owner. Fed up with living his life under a cloud, Williams Read More

Pale Rider

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Chris Penn, Richard Dysart

Synopsis: A mysterious and possibly otherworldly stranger comes to the rescue of a frontier town in this Western, which was strongly influenced by the George Stevens classic, Shane. The peace of a small mining community is shattered when Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart), the ruthless proprietor of a powerful Read More

Beverly Hills Cop

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Lisa Eilbacher, John Ashton, Ronny Cox

Synopsis: What's that wisecracking young black guy (Eddie Murphy) in that beat-up Chevy Nova doing in lily-white Beverly Hills? He's Axel Foley, a Detroit detective who's been sent on involuntary vacation because he refuses to drop his intention of avenging his friend's murder. Warned by Beverly Hills Read More

Tightrope

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Geneviève Bujold, Dan Hedaya, Alison Eastwood, Jennifer Beck

Synopsis: Clint Eastwood plays a New Orleans detective determined to track down a serial killer of prostitutes. Complicating matters is the fact that the unknown culprit is very likely an S&M fetishist....and so is Eastwood. The detective is profoundly disturbed at the likelihood that he and the killer have Read More

Risky Business

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Curtis Armstrong, Bronson Pinchot, Raphael Sbarge, Joe Pantoliano

Synopsis: Risky Business is the film in which 19-year-old Tom Cruise dances around his living room in his underwear. He does this to celebrate the fact that his parents have left him alone while they go on vacation. Somewhere along the line, hooker Rebecca De Mornay, fleeing her vicious pimp, hides out in Read More

Sudden Impact

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, Bradford Dillman, Paul Drake

Synopsis: In this fourth installment of the Dirty Harry series, Harry has been banished temporarily from San Francisco because his superiors are uncomfortable about his feud with a local crime boss. He goes to an oceanside small town for a little rest and recuperation but finds the town has been traumatized Read More

Bad Boys

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Sean Penn, Reni Santoni, Esai Morales, Eric Gurry, Jim Moody

Synopsis: Following magnetic performances in Taps (1981) and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), young actor Sean Penn sealed his reputation as one of his generation's most gifted performers with his gritty star turn in Bad Boys (1983), an entertaining tale of teen hoodlums in juvenile lock-up. Penn plays Read More

Firefox

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Freddie Jones, David Huffman, Warren Clarke, Ronald Lacey

Synopsis: Producer/director/star Clint Eastwood takes his sweet time getting Firefox started. Eastwood plays Mitchell Gant, a past-his-prime U.S. pilot, smuggled into the Soviet Union to steal a new Russian supersonic fighting plane. Fortunately the KGB men are as burnt out as Gant, enabling him to abscond Read More

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Diane Lane, Peter Donat, David Clennon, John Lehne

Synopsis: A very inexperienced rock band flirts with fame thanks to a valuable assist from the media in this comedy-drama directed by veteran music producer Lou Adler. Corinne Burns (Diane Lane) is a fifteen-year-old orphan who gains a measure of local notoriety when she quits her job at a burger stand Read More

White Dog

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Kristy McNichol, Paul Winfield, Burl Ives, Jameson Parker, Lynne Moody

Synopsis: A little-seen film, suppressed by Paramount studio executives and never released theatrically in the U.S., this drama is a powerful saga about racism. Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol) hits a handsome white dog with her car one night and then nurses it back to health. One day, the theretofore Read More

Honkytonk Man

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood, John McIntire, Alexa Kenin, Verna Bloom

Synopsis: Clint Eastwood put his tough-guy image on hold for this personal project, which follows a musician taking one final chance at the big time. Red Stovall (Eastwood) is a would-be country singer who has been bouncing around the margins of the music business for years. With nowhere in particular to Read More

Inchon

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Gazzara, Toshiro Mifune, Richard Roundtree

Synopsis: This infamous Korean War drama is best known as the movie produced by Rev. Sung Myung Moon's Unification Church, though more people seem to have read stories about its troubled production or disastrous reception at the box office than to have actually seen it: on its initial release, it grossed Read More

Dreamer

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Tim Matheson, Susan Blakely, Jack Warden, Richard B. Shull, Barbara Stuart

Synopsis: Tim Matheson is Dreamer in this Rocky-like inspirational drama. Instead of boxing, the sport in question is bowling. "Dreamer" is a ten-pin whiz in his small town, but can he make it in the Big Time? In his favor, he has the help of irascible manager Jack Warden and faithful girlfriend Susan Blakeley Read More

Escape from Alcatraz

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward

Synopsis: No one can escape from Alcatraz, right? Try telling that to lifer Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood). This Donald Siegel-directed nailbiter is a reenactment of Frank Morris' 1962 attempt to bust himself and two other cons out of The Rock. Eastwood, as Morris, tilts with nasty warden Patrick McGoohan Read More

Big Wednesday

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt, Gary Busey, Patti D'Arbanville, Lee Purcell

Synopsis: Jan-Michael Vincent plays a self-destructive beach bum to whom surfing is a Zen experience. We first meet Vincent in the devil-may-care 1960s, in the company of his carefree buddies William Katt and Gary Busey. The boys reunite ten years later, after one has served time in Vietnam. The beach is Read More

Movie, Movie

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: George C. Scott, Barbara Harris, Eli Wallach, Trish VanDevere, Red Buttons

Synopsis: This spoof of a "typical" double-feature bill of the 1930s is introduced by George Burns, who explains that we're about to see two classic films produced by the legendary Warren Brothers. The first, "Dynamite Fists," is a black-and-white takeoff of such boxing dramas as Golden Boy. Harry Hamlin Read More

Three Warriors

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: McKee "Kiko" Red Wing, Charles White Eagle, Randy Quaid, Lois Red Elk

Synopsis: When he visits his terminally ill grandfather, an urbanized young Native American boy is uncomfortable with the traditional environment. After he grows more accustomed, the 13-year-old learns to appreciate his ethnic culture. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Leadbelly

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Roger E. Mosley, Paul Benjamin, Madge Sinclair, Alan Manson, Albert Hall, Art Evans

Synopsis: This biographical picture explores the troubled life of blues singer and master guitarist Leadbelly, who developed his style and wrote many of his songs during his frequent stints in prison. Featured performances are "&Rock Island Line" and "&Goodnight Irene". ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Shootist

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, Bill McKinney, James Stewart

Synopsis: About ten minutes into The Shootist, Doctor Hostetler (James Stewart) tells aging Western gunfighter John Bernard Books (John Wayne), "You have a cancer." Knowing that his death will be painful and lingering, Books is determined to be shot in the line of "duty." In his remaining two months, Books Read More

The Outlaw Josey Wales

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon

Synopsis: Clint Eastwood's fifth film as a director and eighth Western as a star (ninth if you count Paint Your Wagon), The Outlaw Josey Wales chronicles the hero's violent journey westward after the Civil War. With fresh memoris of his family's slaughter by Red Leg soldier Terrill (Bill McKinney) Read More

Sparkle

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Philip Michael Thomas, Irene Cara, Lonette McKee, Dwan Smith, Mary Alice

Synopsis: A trio of musically talented Harlem sisters rise to become major stars of the '50s. Unfortunately, their sudden popularity causes much turmoil in their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Night Moves

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, Susan Clark

Synopsis: Private eye Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) is dedicated to his job, but his dedication does not make him happy or powerful in his personal life, and his wife (Susan Clark) is cheating on him. Aging actress Arlene Iverson (Janet Ward) hires Harry to find her trust-funded daughter Delly (Melanie Griffith Read More

Lenny

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner, Stanley Beck, Gary Morton

Synopsis: Adapted by Julian Barry from his own Broadway play, Lenny manages to be both brutally frank and highly romanticized in detailing the short life and career of influential, controversial stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce. The chronology hops, skips and jumps between Lenny (Dustin Hoffman) in his prime Read More

High Plains Drifter

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: James Gosa, Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging

Synopsis: "Who are you?" the dwarf Mordecai (Billy Curtis) asks Clint Eastwood's Stranger at the end of Eastwood's 1973 western High Plains Drifter. "You know," he replies, before vanishing into the desert heat waves near California's Mono Lake. Adapting the amorally enigmatic and violent Man With No Name Read More

Blume in Love

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: George Segal, Susan Anspach, Kris Kristofferson, Marsha Mason, Shelley Winters

Synopsis: In the Los Angeles of yoga, therapy, and well-off liberals, a divorcé decides that his ex-wife is the love of his life in Paul Mazursky's romantic comedy. Beverly Hills divorce lawyer Stephen Blume (George Segal) becomes his own client when his social worker wife Nina (Susan Anspach) throws him Read More

Lost Horizon

Crew: Camera Operator

Actors: Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Sally Kellerman, George Kennedy, Michael York

Synopsis: James Hilton's beloved fantasy novel about the land of Shangri-La was given an awkward musical treatment in this extravagantly produced flop. Larry Kramer's screenplay stays close to the 1937 Frank Capra original, as a plane fleeing China crashes in the Himalayas and a mixed group of survivors Read More

The Outfit

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Tony Trabert, Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Robert Ryan, Timothy Carey

Synopsis: A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death in this drama based on a novel by Donald E. Westlake. Earl Macklin (Robert Duvall) is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother. Read More

Joe Kidd

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Don Stroud, Stella Garcia

Synopsis: In John Sturges' Americanized version of Sergio Leone's Man-With-No-Name films, Clint Eastwood is Joe Kidd, a cryptic stranger who arrives in the New Mexican town of Sinola, where Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who Read More

The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Bill Callaway, Cliff Robertson, Robert Duvall, Luke Askew, R.G. Armstrong, Dana Elcar

Synopsis: The oft-told story of the rise and fall of the James Younger gang is given the Dragnet treatment in The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid. With meticulous attention to detail, the film recreates the outlaw gang's most infamous escapade: the September 7, 1876, robbery of "the biggest bank west of Read More

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalban, Natalie Trundy, Hari (Harry) Rhodes

Synopsis: The fourth Planet of the Apes film is set in 1991, 20 years since the assassination of talking, time-traveling apes Cornelius and Zira at the end of Escape From the Planet of the Apes. The couple's infant son, Caesar (Roddy McDowall), has grown to adulthood in the care of kindly circus owner Read More

Play Misty for Me

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch, Clarice Taylor

Synopsis: Play Misty for Me marked Clint Eastwood's debut as a director, and it gave him the then-unusual opportunity to play a regular contemporary guy in a thriller about sex, obsession, and stalking. Eastwood's Dave Garver is a self-centered California jazz disc jockey struggling with the idea of Read More

Dirty Harry

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, Andy Robinson, John Larch

Synopsis: "You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" Dirty Harry provoked a critical uproar in 1971 for its "fascist" message about the power of one, as it also elevated Clint Eastwood to superstar status through his most enduring screen persona. Harry Callahan (Eastwood Read More

The Beguiled

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman,