J. X. Williams was a legendary bottom-of-the-barrel director in the fifties and sixties, pushed even lower by his Commie leanings. On the skids, he drifted around the Continent making cheapo features and the occasional nudie reeler, like the infamous Norwegian Wood. In the late fifties, he fell in with the Chicago mob, helming a number of shakedown films used to extort dough from debauched politicos and celebs. One of the few surviving artifacts of Williams's tawdry career, Peep Show is a strange amalgam of dank noir drama and cheesy journalism, recounting Sam “Momo” Giancana's reign with the Outfit. Styled as a confessional by one of Momo's gunsels, the tabloid tell-all traces the Cosa Nostra's connections first to the fall of Cuba and Kennedy's mob-supported presidency, then to a spreading blight of drug trafficking that swept through Vegas on the way to the White House. The lineup of seedy suspects includes Frank Sinatra, crown crooner to the mob; Babs Deluxe, a voluptuous vixen who could shake it for a shakedown; J. Edgar Hoover, never prettier in a dress; and the anonymous mob enforcer who sings like a true Soprano. Noel Lawrence, the reigning J. X. Williams expert, will talk about this misfit director's overlooked and illicit career. With shorts.