It stars Claudia Cardinale, Giuliano Gemma and Tony Kendall and is set in Sicily in the 1950s.

[2] Father of the Godfathers was inspired by Orazio Barrese's book I complici, Gli anni dell'antimafia.

[1] After the release of Squitieri's previous film I Am the Law, Mario Cecchi Gori approached him to make an adaptation.

[1][3] Barrese and Squitieri were friends, but later stated that "I don't consider Father of the Godfathers as one of my best works, it's definitely inferior to I Am the Law.

[1][3] From a contemporary review, film critic Lino Micciche wrote that the film "is harmed by the multiplicity of tones, rhythms and styles, which foul up the results in both directions it aims at, therefore the film oscillates [...] between popular ballad and turgid comic book, historical recreation and inquiry, the Western genre and committed cinema, echoing from time to time Germi and Rosi, Petri and Damiani[...].