Letter from Otis L. Guernsey (undated)

In the early 1950s, journalist Otis Guernsey had discussed with Alfred Hitchcock an idea for an original screenplay about an ordinary man who is mistaken for a master spy. This undated letter from Guernsey to Hitchcock provided further details.

When the plans for filming an adaptation of The Wreck of the Mary Deare for MGM stalled in 1957, Hitchcock contacted Guernsey with a request to purchase the story from him in order to use the idea in a screenplay. Working with writer Ernest Lehman, this would become North by Northwest (1959).

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