North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition in Blu-ray Book Packaging)

Cary Grant teams with director Alfred Hitchcock for the fourth and final time in this superlative espionage caper judged one of the American Film Institute's Top-100 American Films and spruced up with a new digital transfer and remixed Dolby Digital Stereo. Grant plays a Manhattan advertising executive plunged into a realm of spy (James Mason) and counterspy (Eva Marie Saint) and variously abducted, framed for murder, chased and in another signature set piece, crop-dusted. He also holds on for dear life from the facial features of the Presidents on Mount Rushmore (backlot sets were used). But don't expect the Master of Suspense to leave star or audience hanging.

A strong candidate for the most sheerly entertaining and enjoyable movie ever made by a Hollywood studio (with Citizen Kane, Only Angels Have Wings and Trouble in Paradise running neck and neck). Positioned between the much heavier and more profoundly disturbing Vertigo (1958) and the stark horror of Psycho (1960), North by Northwest (1959) is Alfred Hitchcock at his most effervescent in a romantic comedy-thriller that also features one of the definitive Cary Grant performances. Which is not to say that this is just "Hitchcock Lite"; seminal Hitchcock critic Robin Wood (in his book Hitchcock's Films Revisited) makes an airtight case for this glossy MGM production as one of The Master's "unbroken series of masterpieces from Vertigo to Marnie." It's a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: Grant is Roger O. Thornhill (initials ROT), an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a U.S. undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss, and Martin Landau as his henchman) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a sexy Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint), with whom he engages in one of the longest, most convolutedly choreographed kisses in screen history. And, of course, there are the famous set pieces: the stabbing at the United Nations, the crop-duster plane attack in the cornfield (where a pedestrian has no place to hide), and the cliffhanger finale atop the stone faces of Mount Rushmore. Plus a sparkling Ernest Lehman script and that pulse-quickening Bernard Herrmann score. What more could a moviegoer possibly desire?--Jim Emerson
Also on the Blu-ray disc
North by Northwest is a great-looking Blu-ray disc, with a sharpness and colors that seem like you're watching the film for the first time. New on the 50th anniversary edition are a one-hour documentary on Hitchcock's work "The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style," and a shorter one (25 min.) specifically about the film, "North by Northwest: One for the Ages." It's packaged in one of Warner's Blu-ray books, with trivia, character profiles, and stills and vintage art. Older extras include screenwriter Ernest Lehman's commentary track, a 90-minute profile of star Cary Grant, the documentary from 2000 "Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest" hosted by Eva Marie-Saint, a music-only audio track, and theatrical trailers. --David Horiuchi
Stills from North by Northwest (Click for larger image; not Blu-ray screen-captures)

Hey guys! This was the first match. Now, see the thrilling battle, just as you voted for it to end. Enjoy!

Tom: From the Moon, orbiting the Earth at 221,463 miles, This... Is... The Dome!

Bill: It sure is, Tom. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Bill Thomas.

Tom: And I'm Tom Williams. And today two living, breathing tanks will be facing off in our post apocalyptic arean.

Bill: That's right, Tom. A one manned army and a one womaned army, respectively.

Tom: Prepare you're eyes and ears for the onslaught that is Iron Man, the metal-head of Marvel versus Samus Aran, the Chozo trained martial warrior.

Bill: And the reason for the fight, three words: Advanced Battle Suits. Both are best known for their use of technology combined with smarts and skills. Not to mention their intense weaponry options.

Tom: Good call, Bill. Tony Stark is a mechanical genius. Able to design and build just about anything. And Samus Aran, orphaned at a young age, was raised and trained by the mysterious Chozo. Both utilize suits that would make Charlton Heston blush.

Bill: (Laughs) Good analogy. Our arena, The Dome, is a thirty-six square mile dome. Within it, a large city was built. With a large downtown area, airport, residential areas, shopping mall, Football stadium, and other nooks and crannies. And once completed, an entire squad of F-22s fire bombed the empty cityscape, creating a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And that wasteland will be where the fight today will take place.

Tom: And considering the weaponry both combatants wield, there probably won't be anything left after.

Bill: Indeed. Well, let's have a look at the stands. Over there we see members of the Avengers, the Superhero team that Iron Man belongs to. Katie seems to be down there with them. Katie?

Katie: Thanks, Bill. I'm here with the Avengers. Most notably, Captain America. Captain, what are your thoughts on the match?

Captain America: Iron Man and I have had our differences, Ma'am. And with those came some... skirmishes. He's a good fighter with a frightening ordinance. That being said, I have never really even heard of Samus. And she looks pretty impressive too. If you see this tape, Tony, don't go easy on her just because she's a lady.

Katie: Thanks, Captain. Bill, here I have someone affiliated with Samus Aran. None other than the world's most recognized character, Super Mario himself.

Mario: Hello.

Katie: Mr.... Uh... Mario?

Mario: Just-ah Mario will be fine.

Katie: Mario. Thoughts on the match up today?

Mario: I-ah know what some will be thinking. Samus has a notable disadvantage- Iron Man can-ah fly. And while that's-ah true. I have seen Samus in-ah combat. Her targeting can- and-ah has- allowed her to take down enemies far above her-ah head. Samus has-ah my vote in this match up.

Katie: Thanks! Tom, Bill, back to you.

Tom: Thank you, Katie. As usual, with every match in The Dome, we have a buffet/cocktail party the night before the match. Last night was no exception. Although, the match almost started early with a slight altercation between Tony Stark and Samus Aran. And, let me say, if that was any preview of our match today we're in for a wild ride.

Bill: I'll say. It began innocently enough, with Tony Stark approaching a blonde attractive woman in a sky blue dress. Only, this was no ordinary woman. This was SAMUS!

Tom: That's right, Bill. And the CEO of Stark Industries was quite flustered. The discussion started first with friendly banter about both their skills and the upcoming match. But, Stark took it too far. Rob-64, a colleague of Samus, caught the altercation on tape, and here it is.

VIDEO CLIP-

(Conversation between Stark and Aran)

Stark: (Laughing) Sounds like a good fight! Tell me, This... Kraid was it?... How big was he?

Samus (No suit. Just a loose fitting sky blue dress): (Smiling, obviously good natured) Large enough, believe me. He gave me quite the run.

Stark: Really? And what weapon did you use?

Samus: Nice try. I'm not giving you any opportunity to nullify what my suit is capable of BEFORE we fight. (Smiles)

Stark: Suit yourself, sweetheart. Just playing fair.

Samus: Fair?

Stark: Well, The advantage leans my way Ms. Aran.

Samus: Flight won't get you any...

Stark: Not talking about flight, dear. (Laughs and looks at Rhodey)

Samus: (Laughs menacingly) Oh.... I get it.

Stark: Huh?

Samus: You chauvenists are all the same. Assuming that a woman can't handle herself on the battlefield...

Stark: (Noticeably flustered) No no no... Uh... All I meant was...

Samus: No, no! (Pushes Zelda's hand off of her) I understand. Believe me, this lowly woman meet your standards, sir. I am the most feared Bounty Hunter in the galaxy. Perhaps you'd like a go now? No suits. Let's do this...

Stark: Hold on. Hold on!

Samus: (Held back by Link and Falco Lombardi) C'Mon. Prove your worth little man.

Falco: Save it for the game. Save it for the game.

Stark: (Backing up, but looking ready to defend h

Look at those huge cotton candies!!! This was taken from about 400 miles east of tokyo, about 50 minutes from landing. Not that you need to know.

This time, I took Northwest instead of my usual Singapore Airlines. The reason was, Northwest was about $200 cheaper than Singapore on the day I wanted to leave (because of the season), so I picked Northwest but usually Singapore is really cheap, too.
BUT SERIOUSLY! Northwest STUNK!!!! I definitely do NOT recommend it. Okay, below is my review. FYI, I was in the economy class, the cheapest of 3 classes (first, buisiness, economy).

The flight attendants are ugly (okay, maybe not "ugly" but not as attractive as those of other airlines like Singapore) and their attitude was just not that great. I should say they weren't as thoughtful as they should be.
Northwest's aircraft also was something they should do something about. It looked like it was the same one they used from when I was 5 years old. No individual TV screens and the windows were not cleaned adequately.

Singapore on the other hand is just awesome every time with its service. No complaints at all. I totally recommend Singapore because it's cheap and great!

Man, the flight this time was the longest 11 hours I experienced in a long time. I'm going to stick with Singapore from now on and not going to take Northwest for a while.

With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O’Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in the latest installment of William Kent Krueger’s unforgettable New York Times bestselling series.
During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm.
Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper’s cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by the vicious winds. Underneath the debris, they find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it’s impossible to tell who among the residents is in league with the devil. Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow.
“Part adventure, part mystery, and all knockout thriller” (Booklist ), Northwest Angle is a dynamic addition to William Kent Krueger’s critically acclaimed, award-winning series.

With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O’Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in the latest installment of William Kent Krueger’s unforgettable New York Times bestselling series.
During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm.
Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper’s cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by the vicious winds. Underneath the debris, they find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it’s impossible to tell who among the residents is in league with the devil. Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow.
“Part adventure, part mystery, and all knockout thriller” (Booklist ), Northwest Angle is a dynamic addition to William Kent Krueger’s critically acclaimed, award-winning series.




Amazon Exclusive: Laura Lippman Interviews William Kent Krueger

Laura Lippman is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of 17 novels, ten of which are part of her acclaimed Tess Monaghan detective series. She is a former journalist and spent twelve years reporting for The Baltimore Sun. Her most recent novels include I'd Know You Anywhere, now available in paperback, and The Most Dangerous Thing, just published in hardcover.


Laura Lippman: Elmore Leonard's rules for writing include one that I've never agreed with: Never start a novel with the weather. Yet you use the derecho quite brilliantly in your opening and say you "always knew" that you would write about such a storm in one of your novels. Why now? How did the derecho and the right story find each other?
William Kent Krueger: The seed of an idea often comes to me long before the story itself. In 1999, a horrific storm destroyed a huge part of Minnesota's beautiful and beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. When I saw the destruction first-hand, I was stunned and saddened, and I knew that someday I would write about that kind of tragedy. In thinking about Northwest Angle, a book I envisioned as thrilleresque in many ways, I wanted the story to open with the force of a bomb exploding, something that would shatter the O'Connor family and fling them apart. The derecho, an idea planted more than a decade earlier, became the way.
LL: You write so well about nature. I can't help wondering at the special challenges that it poses. And you seem particularly interested in humans' conflicting needs for community and isolation, family and privacy. How did you combine these themes in Northwest Angle?
WK: Oh my, you do ask complex questions. For me, the most intriguing part of any story is the battle between the need we have as human beings for relationship and the forces that inevitably work to separate us. At the heart of Northwest Angle, is the struggle of the O'Connors to come together and heal after a great tragedy in their lives. But that very personal story is couched within the context of a brutal, ideological clash of communities. It seems to me stories of suspense work best when they create conflict at both an intimate level and on a larger scale. It’s also more fun to write that kind of story, at least for me. Your own novels, particularly your stand-alones, seem to me to be textbook examples of the dramatic tension that comes when the secrets of our private, intimate lives are cracked open for public scrutiny.
LL: It's easy to see how Cork has changed over the course of eleven books. But how have you changed as a writer? And how have the circumstances of your life changed your writing?
WK: Mostly I've grown older and, I would like to believe, wiser. Like Cork, I've become a grandfather, and that's mellowed me, I'm sure. Although my stories are still about the violence that human beings do to one another, I'm less interested in the violence itself. These days, I tend to deal more with the questions that surround an act of violence rather than the act per se. And generally speaking, the body count in each book has gone down.

LL: Northwest Angle works pretty seamlessly on the page, but my intuition tells me that means it wasn't an easy book to write. What were the unique challenges, if any, in writing this particular book? Did you ever feel you were as lost as Cork and Jenny? (Please say yes, or I might have to hate you a little.)
WK: At the risk of drawing your ire, the part of the story that deals with Cork and Jenny's struggle to escape the dark forces pitted against them came easily. That was all mostly movement and plot mechanics. The conflict between father and daughter that gives the story much of its punch, now that was the tricky element. And if you hate me just a little for this answer, I'll buy you a glass of wine when I see you next, just to mellow you out.
LL: I know a lot of people don't realize that genre writers are often deep into the next project when a new book is published. What's next for you?
WK: I'm at work on the next book in the series, a novel tentatively titled Trickster's Point. The down and dirty is that the first Native American governor of Minnesota is murdered while bow hunting with Cork O'Connor, and the arrow that kills him belongs to Cork. So you know, of course, who gets the blame. You might think of it as Cork O'Connor meets All the King's Men. I’m having a ball writing this one.
LL: OK, I have a famously awful memory, but my memory is that you won the Anthony for best first novel in 1999 and promptly declared something like "I'm so excited I could throw up." Am I even close? Should I not tell that story?
WK: If I'd actually said I might throw up, this would not be a story I'd like repeated. What I really said in accepting the award was this: "Would it be too embarrassing if I broke down and cried?" Got a good laugh, though I was half serious.

Amazon Exclusive: Letter from William Kent Krueger

A couple of years ago, when Atria informed me that they were going to begin publishing my work in trade paperback with a whole new look to the series, I decided it was time to do something I'd never done before: I reread all my Cork O'Connor novels. I anticipated that in the early work I would see lots of elements that, given a chance, I'd gladly change. To my utter amazement, I fell in love with the stories all over again. What I discovered was a writer whose work I deeply enjoyed reading. And, honestly, I didn't think twice about changes I might like to make. Maybe what I appreciated most was seeing for myself how, though built of similar elements, each book was so different from the others. What I've hoped most to accomplish over the course of the series is to keep readers from feeling as if they're treading ground that’s become drably familiar. I believe absolutely that so long as I continue to be surprised and delighted by the stories that come to me, readers will be, too.

Profile of Cork O'Connor

The great North Woods of Minnesota is a vast area of harsh weather, deep wilderness, and bitter conflict. This rugged and isolated landscape is home to Cork O'Connor. The former sheriff of Tamarack County, Cork is a man of tremendous resource and mixed heritage. Part Irish-American and part Ojibwe, he straddles two cultures that, more often than not, are at extreme—sometimes violent—odds. He’s a family man who’d rather toss a football with his son than tote a gun; but he understands only too well that he lives in a place where winter isn't the only thing that can kill the unwary, where wolves share the woods with predators who walk on two legs, and where, in order to protect those he loves, even a good man must be willing to do the unthinkable.
For more on the Cork O'Connor series, read Margaret Coel's guest review of Vermilion Drift.