Scarce vintage matte-finish 7.5 x 9.5-inch portrait, signed and inscribed in black fountain pen. in the late 1920s or early 1930s. In fine condition, with neatly trimmed borders, very faint silvering in the background and a few minute instances of pen skipping. Burly British actor Montagu Love is remembered as the nastiest villain of the silent screen, menacing Rudolph Valentino in Son of the Sheik (1926), John Barrymore in Don Juan (1926) and Lillian Gish in The Wind (1928). In the talkie era, he found a softer part of himself, playing avuncular, affable sorts in films like A Damsel in Distress (1937), The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) and Gunga Din (1939), as well as historic leaders, in the period films Alexander Hamilton (1931), The Prince and the Pauper (1937), The Sea Hawk (1940), and The Remarkable Andrew (1942). Throughout his career, Love made memorable contributions to the horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery genres, with roles in The Brand of Satan (1917), The Last Warning (1929), Midstream (1929), The Mysterious Island (1929), The Cat Creeps (1930), The Mystic Hour (1933), andthe Basil Rathbone favorite Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942).