AllMovie

Guns of Zangara was the theatrical title given to this two-part pilot film for the Untouchables TV series. Robert Stack plays Elliot Ness, detective in charge of a special unit of incorruptible Chicago cops during the early 1930s. When it becomes obvious that President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt will repeal Prohibition, several nervous gangsters put out a contract on FDR. The man appointed to be principal assassin is Zangara, who plans to pull off the job while Roosevelt is visiting Chicago's Mayor Cermak at the 1933 World's Fair. With Ness on the case, the assassination is thwarted, though Cermak is mortally wounded. Guns of Zangara betrays its TV origins only in its limited budget and built-in "action breaks" that had formerly accommodated commercials. This film and another Untouchables two-part pilot (The Scarface Mob) were released theatrically in Europe, and subsequently included in Warner Brothers' domestic TV movie package.