Scarce 8x10-inch black and white portrait, boldly signed and inscribed in blue fountain pen in the late 1940s. In good condition, with one or two minor handling dings. Eminent English stage and film actor Claude Rains, so unforgettable in classic films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1942), Now Voyager (1942), Mr. Skeffington (1944), and Notorious (1946), is especially revered by horror buffs for his portrayals of the titular mad scientist in The Invisible Man (1933), John Jasper in Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), Sir John Talbot in The Wolf Man (1941), and the disfigured Erique— sporting excellent make-up by Jack P. Pierce!— in Arthur Lubin’s 1943 remake of The Phantom of the Opera.

• Tweet