The mass murder of forty mob bosses on 11 September 1931 depicted in the film became to be known as the ""Night of the Sicilian Vespers".
The film's opening prologue states: "In 1946, America made a gift to the Mafia ! It deported to Italy (from where he came) one Salvatore Lucania, alias Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, kingpin New York racketeer. Sentenced to from 30 to 50 years imprisonment in 1936 on charges brought against him by District Attorney, Thomas E. Dewey, he was paroled - after serving only 9 years - for - 'special services rendered to the United States Armed Forces during World War two', by the same Mr. Dewey, who had since become Governor of the State of New York".
In Senses of Cinema's translation of an interview with film critic Michel Ciment for 'Le Dossier Rosi' (1976), director Francesco Rosi said of Charles Siragusa's war against Lucky Luciano: "He feels like the victim of a conspiracy he can't quite comprehend . . . that someone or something is stopping him from carrying out his work the way he wants to".
The picture was shot with post-synch sound for the English language version but for the original language version the picture was filmed in multi-lingual languages so the Italian sequences are in Italian and most of the New York sequences are largely in English.
A restored print of the film was selected to screen as part of the Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2013.