The Short Night
From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
Introduction
Hitchcock's last, unfinished project was an adaptation of the spy thriller by Ronald Kirkbride. A British double agent (loosely based on George Blake) escapes from prison and flees to Moscow via Finland, where his wife and children are waiting. An American agent - whose brother was one of the traitor's victims – heads to Finland to intercept him but ends up falling for the wife. It would be Hitchcock's third attempt – after Torn Curtain and Topaz - to produce a "realistic Bond film". Clint Eastwood, Walter Matthau and Sean Connery were possible male leads. Liv Ullman was asked to play the double agent's wife.
The first writer assigned to the picture, James Costigan, quarrelled with the director, who asked for him to be paid off. Then Hitchcock's old sparring partner Ernest Lehman agreed to work on the script. Lehman felt the story should focus on the American spy and left out the double agent's jailbreak. Lehman left the film, too, and Hitchcock asked an old friend Norman Lloyd to help him write a long treatment. Lloyd, like Universal, was concerned that Hitchcock's failing health meant that the movie might not get made. When Hitchcock suggested moving straight on to the screenplay, Lloyd objected saying they weren't ready. Hitchcock reacted angrily, fired Lloyd and worked on the treatment himself.
After a while, Hitchcock accepted that he needed another writer to work with him, and Universal suggested David Freeman. Freeman helped Hitchcock complete the treatment and wrote the screenplay. He wrote about his experiences in "The Last Days of Hitchcock", which included his completed screenplay. But it was felt that Hitchcock would not have the strength to shoot the movie with its location filming and action set pieces. Universal decided to kill the project and close Hitchcock's expensive offices. The director died a year later.