Thessaloniki Film Festival
Official Selection
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Peep Show1965
Steve Seid from Pacific Film Archive writes, "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-1950s 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."
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3 members like this review
OK, I realized pretty quickly that this film wasn't really made in 1965, and the whole J.X. Williams thing is an elaborate, but thinly veiled hoax. I don't know why it is listed here as being from 1965. The clips ripped off from THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM should be an obvious giveaway. Still, it is a great mash-up of new and archival material, and a fun watch.
top reviewer
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Starring
- Ernest Cook - The Passenger
- Sam Giancana
Member Reviews (10)
top reviewer
OK, I realized pretty quickly that this film wasn't really made in 1965, and the whole J.X. Williams thing is an elaborate, but thinly veiled hoax. I don't know why it is listed here as being from 1965. The clips ripped off from THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM should be an obvious giveaway. Still, it is a great mash-up of new and archival material, and a fun watch.
3 members like this review
top reviewer
A fascinating, paranoid visual rambling of archival material, borrowed movies, porn clips and other celluloid detritus with the director inserting himself into the middle of the narrative.
Very creative and visually interesting. A couple of times I thought, ‘I’ve never seen that done before. Super cool.’
1 member likes this review
top reviewer
This should be shown as a "special feature" with the GODFATHER I&II. It's an amazing night ride through the darkside of historical reality. Seeps onto the surface like a pop culture oil slick
1 member likes this review
Brilliant! Deep dark look into the mob, politics, drugs, sex and power.
1 member likes this review
massive creativity ... must see ...(give it time to develop)
1 member likes this review
Fascinating story of the mob in the 50's and 60's, focusing on Hoover, the two Kennedys, Castro, Sinatra and numerous well-known "wise guys". The director, J.X. Williams, weaves himself into the story as well, a technique that here he makes work better than one might expect. Told entirely by a single narrator, this film surprisingly holds the viewer's attention using a minimalist combination of cast and crew.
1 member likes this review
Seemed real the entire time. Magical mixture of fact, archives and bullshit.
1 member likes this review
amazing film very realistic The narration is hilarious but seemed almost realistic
5 star
One star is generous.
Chilling.
Also a composite in here made from Dementia (1955)... The shot of the outside of hotel... Whoever made this replaced the window with a girl giving a blowjob. If you dig into IMDB and find the other "films" you'll find they're also just mash-ups of other movies... Obviously this whole thing is a hoax...