Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#29772
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Mary Field works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Mary Field appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Mary. Out of the Past is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for romance, war, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jesse Hibbs, Walter Lang, Ernest B. Schoedsack and others, Mary Field helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Out of the Past (1947) as Marny (uncredited) · Miracle on 34th Street (1947) as Dutch Girl's Adoptive Mother (uncredited) · How Green Was My Valley (1941) as Eve (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #29772 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
1937–1955
Career length
18 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
Out of the Past
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
Out of the Past
Most frequent director
Howard Hawks
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Howard Hawks
Most common genre
Drama
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.4
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1940s
6.6 average MV
The 1940s are where the work and the material meet. Mighty Joe Young, Sorry, Wrong Number, A Song Is Born — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1940s
6.6
Across 19 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1930s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1930s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Jezebel, The Prince and the Pauper.
Most productive era
1940s
19 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.62 films | 6.77 films | 6.42 films |
| Action | — | 6.41 film | 6.41 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.84 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.76 films | 6.41 film |
| Crime | — | 7.03 films | — |
| Romance | 6.71 film | 6.74 films | 6.41 film |
| Horror | — | 6.23 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Mrs. Canty.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1947Out of the Past
7.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
1955To Hell and Back
The current state of the argument, as Mrs. Murphy.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
23 of 23 films
as Marny (uncredited)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
as Dutch Girl's Adoptive Mother (uncredited)
Directed by George Seaton
as Miss Totten
Directed by Howard Hawks
as Aunt Mary at Bus Station (uncredited)
Directed by Delmer Daves
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Marny (uncredited)
Out of the Past (1947)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Marny (uncredited) gives Mary Field a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Dutch Girl's Adoptive Mother (uncredited)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Performance score7.1
Miracle on 34th Street asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dutch Girl's Adoptive Mother (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Eve (uncredited)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Performance score6.9
How Green Was My Valley asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Eve (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Miss Totten
Ball of Fire (1941)
Performance score6.9
Ball of Fire asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Miss Totten is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Marny (uncredited)
Start here. Out of the Past is the clearest statement of what Mary Field does — accessible, 97 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Mary at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
A deliberate change of key after Out of the Past — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Ball of Fire (1941)
A deliberate change of key after How Green Was My Valley — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Keeps the comedy register of Ball of Fire but asks for a colder reading of it.
Dark Passage (1947)
A deliberate change of key after Miracle on 34th Street — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
William Wyler
Director
2 films together
Notably Mrs. Miniver
René Clair
Director
2 films together
Notably I Married a Witch
Victor Fleming
Director
2 films together
Notably Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Howard Hawks
Director
2 films together
Notably Ball of Fire
William Keighley
Director
1 film together
Notably The Prince and the Pauper
Joe May
Director
1 film together
Notably The Invisible Man Returns
William Nigh
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ape
John Ford
Director
1 film together
Notably How Green Was My Valley
Fritz Lang
Director
1 film together
Notably Ministry of Fear
Harve Foster
Director
1 film together
Notably Song of the South
Jacques Tourneur
Director
1 film together
Notably Out of the Past
George Seaton
Director
1 film together
Notably Miracle on 34th Street
Michael Curtiz
Director
1 film together
Notably Life with Father
Cecil B. DeMille
Director
1 film together
Notably Unconquered
Delmer Daves
Director
1 film together
Notably Dark Passage
Anatole Litvak
Director
1 film together
Notably Sorry, Wrong Number
Ernest B. Schoedsack
Director
1 film together
Notably Mighty Joe Young
Walter Lang
Director
1 film together
Notably Cheaper by the Dozen
Jesse Hibbs
Director
1 film together
Notably To Hell and Back
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
William Wyler
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Mrs. MiniverHoward Hawks
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Ball of FireRené Clair
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
I Married a WitchVictor Fleming
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeJacques Tourneur
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Out of the PastGeorge Seaton
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miracle on 34th StreetJohn Ford
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How Green Was My ValleyDelmer Daves
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dark PassageAnatole Litvak
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sorry, Wrong NumberFritz Lang
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ministry of FearMichael Curtiz
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Life with FatherHarve Foster
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Song of the SouthWilliam Keighley
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Prince and the PauperJesse Hibbs
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To Hell and BackWalter Lang
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cheaper by the DozenErnest B. Schoedsack
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mighty Joe YoungCecil B. DeMille
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnconqueredJoe May
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Invisible Man ReturnsWilliam Nigh
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ApeSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
How Green Was My Valley
as Eve (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Jezebel
as Woman at the Olympus Ball (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Out of the Past
as Marny (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Joan of Arc
as Boy's Mother (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Out of the Past
as Marny (uncredited)
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Mary Field has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Drama Legend
Awarded
11 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Dark Passage
as Aunt Mary at Bus Station (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Out of the Past
as Marny (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
To Hell and Back
as Mrs. Murphy
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Dark Passage
as Aunt Mary at Bus Station (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Mighty Joe Young
as Secretary (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Mighty Joe Young
as Secretary (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Ball of Fire
as Miss Totten
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Ape
as Mrs. Mason
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Bonnie Hunt
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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