Having tried all kinds of ways in the late 1920s to find work in to the British cinema, Esmond’s modest break eventually came when he was asked to appear as a radio operator in a 1929 film called The Blue Peter. He prepared for the part by studying morse code and reading up on radio techniques, but when he turned up at the ship in Tilbury docks where filming was talking place, he found that as breaks go it was a very modest one indeed and all his preparation had been unnecessary.  He was merely required to walk out of one cabin into another and hand a radio message to another actor, Matheson Lang. For Esmond it was a milestone but a bit of an anticlimax for his family and servants who went along en masse to their local cinema in Putney to see "Mr Esmond" in his first picture.

Fortunately his second film, this time in a talking picture, was more substantial, a leading role in fact. In Romany Love (1931) he played Davy Summers, "a swaggering gypsy who never stopped singing." Esmond saw this as his opportunity to shine and in the final scene, a pub brawl, he used his athletic prowess to good effect by swinging on a chandelier and landing on a balcony. All went well on the first take, but second time round Esmond fell and broke his ankle and had to finish the filming on crutches!

Later the same year Esmond found himself at Nettlefold Studios in Walton-On-Thames, working alongside his boating friend, Vernon Sewell, on another film - 77 Park Lane (1931) - scripted by an ambitious young man called Michael Powell. This was the second film Powell had worked on at Nettlefold and followed close on the heels of a production called Caste which starred Nora Swinburne, though not close enough that she and Esmond met - another six years would pass before their paths crossed.
t The cover of a booklet supplied to cinema owners by United Artists to help them promote their latest film release, 77 Park Lane (1931), in which Esmond played Philip Connor, a young man who falls foul of rogues in an illegal gambling den.

Michael Powell clearly felt that he could have done a better job as the director of 77 Park Lane and involved himself as much as possible in every aspect of production. In the process he was getting to know artists and technicians with whom he would work time and again, developing a pool of talent on which he could, and would, call upon for future production, most notably his collaborations with Emeric Pressburger as 'The Archers'. One of these was Vernon Sewell. Another was Esmond Knight. 

In the first part of his autobiography, A Life In Movies, Powell, referring to  77 Park Lane, wrote:  "The young man who played her (Betty Stockfield's) brother in the film was a real find. He was a sulky, handsome young man with a mane of black hair and magnetic eyes. He was almost too romantically handsome to be true. Then one day I saw him giggling with one of the sound engineers and I realised that it was all a pose and he had a sense of humour. He was not tall but I felt he had star potential. His name was Esmond Knight." 

In Esmond's autobiography, Seeking The Bubble, he wrote: "Michael Powell was an assistant director on the film and even in those early days one felt that he would go far. He looked exactly as I have always imagined Shakespeare, for he was the spit of the Martin Droeshout portrait."  The mutual admiration and respect grew and develop, and over the next 40 years Esmond appeared in more Powell productions than any other actor, a total of 11 films.

By July Esmond was once more out of work. But his luck was about to change. Quite by chance he bumped in to an actor friend in the street who told him about auditions that were taking place that same day for a new musical play about the Strauss family called Waltzes From Vienna. Esmond hurried along to the theatre where the auditions were being held, managed to bluff his way on stage, and the next day “was engaged to play a small part and understudy Denis Noble at the enormous salary of £15 a week.” 
t A publicity shot of Esmond taken in 1935.
Then a second piece of luck came his way. Six days before they opened, the actor booked to play the leading part of Johann Strauss Junior withdrew and, to his delight, Esmond was offered the role. It was the opportunity to join a large mainstream West End production he had been hoping for for a long time and he could hardly believe his good fortune. This was of course a musical and the part of Johan Strauss Junior required him to sing, as well as conduct a large orchestra on stage. He worked hard to make sure that his musicianship was up to standard and he did not let the producers down. Unbeknown to them, he had been secretly learning the role in the hope that a chance such as this might occur.

Waltzes From Vienna was a great success and ran for a year. At first he only played the matinees, sharing the role with Robert Halliday, but when it became his entirely the management increased his salary to the dizzy heights of £40 a week “…. and at last I was able to have some of the things which for years I had craved.” He bought some badly needed new clothes and also able to save a good deal of money for the first time in his life. Nevertheless a year is a long time to continue playing the same part and by the end of the run Esmond was ready to move on to pastures new. After a somewhat disastrous special performance in Love for Love with Fran at the Faculty of Arts (in which he found himself singing a different version of a song from his accompanist on the harpsichord!) he found himself involved in another musical play, this time Wild Violets at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. After a poor first night and a lukewarm beginning, followed by pay cuts for all the cast, the production gradually picked up and ran for nine months. Esmond was very fond of the show and regarded the musical score by Robert Stolz as one of the finest ever written for a show.

Next:   1933 - 1935  An Encounter With Hitch