Mary Field

Go with the flow: to gentle but spellbinding effect this innovative natural history film glimpses marine life astride rising tides at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. Urchins, lugworm, weaver-fish and crabs are the shy-but-elegant stars coaxed onto the screen (with the assistance of Millport’s local research station) for this archetypal edition of Gaumont-British Instructional’s 1930s cinema series Secrets of Life.

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

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

Birds of the Farne Islands.

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

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.

Go with the flow: to gentle but spellbinding effect this innovative natural history film glimpses marine life astride rising tides at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. Urchins, lugworm, weaver-fish and crabs are the shy-but-elegant stars coaxed onto the screen (with the assistance of Millport’s local research station) for this archetypal edition of Gaumont-British Instructional’s 1930s cinema series Secrets of Life.

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

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

Birds of the Farne Islands.

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

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.

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

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

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 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."

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

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

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

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

'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)

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.

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

A Secrets of Life short.

The first in the Secrets of Life series of short films.

A Secrets of Nature short.

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.

A Secrets of Nature short.

A Secrets of Life short.

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.

Poetic tribute to Mrs Turner's vegetable growing prowess, plus the delights of "wartime steaks".

A Secrets of Life short about a raven.

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

A Secrets of Life short about the swan.

A Secrets of Life short.

A brisk visual summary of the changing faces of the English town throughout the ages, from the ancients and their hill-forts to the Second World War -- enlivened by the appearance of ghostly denizens to defend their eras against the narrator's various strictures!

A Secrets of Life short about ants.

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

Short documentary showing infusoria in a wine-glass.

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

History - and natural history - filmed on location in Selborne, East Hampshire. This unusual edition of the long-running series Secrets of Life tells the story of the village's famous son, Rev Gilbert White, whose 1789 book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne is a classic of natural history. The film follows in his footsteps, with camera rather than quill in hand, focusing on nature but also taking in views of the village and its human inhabitants. The ingenious close coverage of bird, reptile and other wildlife was the stock-in-trade of the filmmakers at Gaumont-British Instructional, producers of the series. Under the direction of the redoubtable Mary Field, the behind-screen talent here includes legendary 'cine-biologists' Percy Smith and Oliver Pike. A tribute by one generation of pioneering naturalists to another, it's a quietly moving film in spite of its clipped English reserve - or perhaps partly because of it.

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."

Captures the lives, habits and habitats of London’s pigeon population.

A Secrets of Life short of which the BFI described "a delightful study of a single family which leaves one with a feeling of satisfaction and a determination to watch at least one garden nest consistently when spring returns. The views from inside the nesting box are particularly interesting and one is left wondering how the lighting was managed so well. Young children would be relieved to hear that the parents continued to feed all their young ones and not only the few which kept their balance on the branch. Useful in nature study, biology and gardening classes"