The film stars Gianni Garko, William Berger, Fernando Sancho and Klaus Kinski, and features a musical score by Piero Piccioni.

[4] As with Django a few years earlier, several directors, such as Demofilo Fidani, made unofficial sequels to cash in on the success of Sartana.

In a 2005 interview, Garko said he wanted a subject that would not be based on vengeance, as he had already portrayed characters bent on revenge in Blood at Sundown and Guns of Violence (10.000 dollari per un massacro, 1967).

After he turned down several scripts with a revenge theme, Renato Izzo wrote a story about a smart, non-sentimental character that profits by putting himself between two rival groups.

Sartana's use of mechanical gadgets was added by director Parolini, who was a fan of the James Bond films.

Spooked by Sartana's playing one of the murdered passengers' musical watch, he heads to town to meet with Jeff Stewal, a politician, and Alman, a banker, to collect his payment as part of an insurance fraud.

Sartana also arrives and the two open the coffin, only to discover it filled with rocks and the mayor's corpse instead of gold.

[6] To promote the film at its premiere, the Roman cinema had a Western set presented complete with horses and a carriage.

[6] An unofficial derivative film titled Sartana Does Not Forgive was released two months after the Italian premiere.