[2] Using the name Martha Early, she was signed to a six-month contract with Essanay Studios in 1917 where she appeared in three films with French actor Max Linder.

Later that same year, she made her feature film debut in Broadway Bill, opposite Harold Lockwood.

She gained prominence as Millicent Carew (originally offered to Tallulah Bankhead) in the film adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which starred John Barrymore.

[1]: 242  The final completed features in her short film career were Potash and Perlmutter and The Leavenworth Case, both from 1923.

[4] On November 29, 1923, while working on location in San Antonio, Texas on the film The Warrens of Virginia, Mansfield was severely burned when a tossed match ignited her Civil War costume of hoop skirts and flimsy ruffles.

Mansfield was playing the role of Agatha Warren and had just finished her scenes and retired to a car when her clothing burst into flames.

Her neck and face were saved when leading man Wilfred Lytell threw his heavy overcoat over her.

Accompanied by actor Phillip Shorey, Mansfield's body was transported back to her home in New York City.

[1]: 243 When the Warrens of Virginia was finally released in late 1924, Mansfield's role had been edited down, and Rosemary Hill was promoted as the female lead.