Mary Field

The daughter of an American leather magnate is sent on a series of sightseeing tours in London with her father's business associate, but finds herself targeted by an opportunistic blackmailer.

A Secrets of Nature short.

Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.

Micro-cinematography is used to show how plants transform their secretions into other substances.

A Secrets of Life short similar to the ealier work, Climbing Plants.

A Secrets of Nature short.

The daughter of an American leather magnate is sent on a series of sightseeing tours in London with her father's business associate, but finds herself targeted by an opportunistic blackmailer.

A Secrets of Nature short.

Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.

Micro-cinematography is used to show how plants transform their secretions into other substances.

A Secrets of Life short similar to the ealier work, Climbing Plants.

A Secrets of Nature short.

"Shows how the hedgerows are used by many animals and birds to conceal their homes."

A Secrets of Life documentary about bathing time at the zoo. The film was registered on the Board of Trade's official list under Section 6 of the Films Act as 883ft long (roughly 9 minutes if projected at 24 frames per second) It is a remake, or update, of the short "Bath Time at the Zoo" from Secrets of Nature.

Short nature documentary by Mary Field and F. Percy Smith.

A study of the Spear Thistle demonstrating the processes of fertilisation.

A Secrets of Life short.

This promotional film bills the market town of Newark as central to the farming industry, with an array of regional produce and livestock. It was sponsored by the British Council and intended for an international audience.

A Secrets of Life short about the swan.

Using diagrams, 'Atlantic' explores the history of the empires surrounding the Atlantic Ocean over the last 600 years.

A Secrets of Life short.

Mosses are seen on walls, old roofs and in hedgerows.

Birds of the Farne Islands.

A Secrets of Life short about a raven.

The life cycle of the rose aphid (Macrosiphum Roseus).

Shows how a nursery school enables children to play, eat, rest, look after themselves and indulge their curiousity at their own pace during a typical day.

'An unwary young woman led astray by a grinning gentleman on a motorcycle ends up with a sexually transmitted disease in this straight-talking female-focused silent public information film drama. Her doctor recounts - in a series of ominous flashbacks - sad tales of other women in similar situations who foolhardily let gonorrhoea and syphilis go untreated.' (BFI Player)

A Secrets of Life short, potentially the second in the series about the Lupin.

A Secrets of Nature short.

A Secrets of Life short.

A Secrets of Life short to which the BFI gave this description: "The film falls into two related sections: the first part shows, by fast motion... the germination, growth-characteristic and fertilisation of the wild cabbage; the second part shows how the varied forms of cultivated cabbage - Savoys, Brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, sprouting broccoli - are related to the wild form, by illustrating the particular feature of the wild form that is present to an exaggerated degree in the cultivated variety... A very good example of how to deal with familiar gardening knowledge in an interesting manner, while at the same time using everyday facts to bring home the scientific lessons that can be drawn therefrom... Perhaps the most striking portions of the whole film are the sections showing which parts of the wild form have been greatly developed to produce the Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, or the Savoy cabbage."

This short ends with a warning that the birds helped "to preserve the leafy loveliness of our English countryside. We should therefore protect the warblers."

A Secrets of Life short.

Flock to your local keep fit class - there's a war on and Britain needs its citizens in tip-top shape.

The lifecycle of a freshwater trout; looking in detail at the development of a trout embryo and hatchling. Also shows the techniques involved in dry-fly trout fishing. (NFA Catalogue) Life cycle and habits of the trout. Photographed by Percy Smith. (Synopsis)

A Secrets of Life short about ants.

The film takes us to the North of England to follow the migration of the black-headed gull down to London. There, the narrator asks viewers to "listen to their gossip", before demonstrating the bird’s flight in slow motion. We see a polecat feasting on gull eggs, and then a man collecting the eggs for human consumption, with the film telling us that they are considered a “delicacy” in London. Indeed, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, around 300,000 gull’s eggs were sold every year in Leadenhall Market in London during the 1930s, when London Visitors was made.

A Secrets of Life documentary about the European Buzzard. The film was registered on the Board of Trade's official list under Section 6 of the Films Act as 869ft long (roughly 9 minutes if projected at 24 frames per second)

The perky Cockneys are London sparrows, who star in this natural history film.

Mary Field edits the time-lapse photography of F. Percy Smith to show the life cycle of ferns and related plants.

A Secrets of Life short of which the BFI gave this description: "The first part of the film is a speeded-up picture of germination and growth of the tomato plant, ending with the fertilization of the flower and the growth of the fruit. The white flies are then shown in action on the plant, and by skilful micro-photography their life cycle is shown, together with the means by which they injure the plant. A natural parasite—small species of wasp—is also shown in action by means of micro-photography,and its method of parasitism is clearlybrought out. The film concludes with apictorial demonstration of the means forridding tomato glass-houses infested withwhite fly by the use of hydrocyanic gas."

A Secrets of Nature short.

The birdlife of Northumberland's Farne Islands comes under the spotlight.

A Secrets of Life short about the Dityscus Beetle

How science and nature combine to purify water in a reservoir. Micro-cinematography shows the bacteria present in the water.

Part of the archive's Junior Biology series, this study of maize is aided by diagrammatic, time-lapse, and microscopic footage.