Vintage mattable blue fountain pen signature on a 2x6-inch tan autograph album page, acquired in-person in the early 1940s. In good condition, with minor ink staining to the upper edge, well away from the writing. Austrian-American stage and screen star Peter Lorre first garnered critical acclaim as the homicidal Hans Beckert in Fritz Lang’s classic thriller M (1931). Despite his diminutive size and childish face, he always seemed to emit an off-putting, sinister quality, resulting in his being typecast as crooks, deranged scientists and obsessive eccentrics. Among horror, sci-fi and fantasy fans, he is remembered as Dr. Gogol in Mad Love (1935), Professor Fenninger in You’ll Find Out (1940), Baron Ikito in Invisible Agent (1942), Dr. Lorencz in The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942), Dr. Einstein in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Hilary Cummins in The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), Conseil in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Commodor Emery in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), Montresor in Tales of Terror (1962), Dr. Bedlo in The Raven (1963), and Felix Gillie in The Comedy of Terrors (1963). His countless credits in other film genres included Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Secret Agent (1936); The Maltese Falcon (1941); The Face Behind the Mask (1941); Casablanca (1942); and the Mr. Moto mystery series of 1937 through 1939.

• Tweet