[4] The script by Adriano Bolzoni is inspired by American noir-crime films of the 1930s and 1940s, and Kinski's entry into the scene reprises Edward G. Robinson's presence in Key Largo (1948).

While they await her arrival, they encounter John Webb (Paolo Casella), a stranger who had shot the man who was to be their guide and who himself wants half their gold in exchange for leading them into Mexico.

In the morning, Webb leads the remaining gang members, including one of the women from the coach, and Sandy, Jonathan's granddaughter, into the desert.

The rangers find him, and their commander tells him that Webb is in fact a man named Parker, the son of a famous judge who was killed along with his family by Hogan during the Civil War.

The film was shot simultaneously with The Last Traitor (Il tredicesimo è sempre Giuda), another Spaghetti Western that was also directed and written by Vari and Bolzoni.

[3] Of its German release, Das Filmmagazin said that there was nothing wrong in principle for Klaus Kinski to be in this Spaghetti Western even though the actor and genre have been in better productions.

The role of Dan Hogan was a perfect opportunity for Kinski to create a character who was an ice cold lunatic on the verge.

Das Filmmagazin also felt that the reduced scope of the limited locations of the coach station and the desert allowed the director to use hand-held shots to create a surreal tonality.

[6] In his review for the website Sense of View, Carsten Henkelmann, while highlighting the lack of rhythm ("The action is for the most part very quiet, the narration is quite slow"), praised the originality of the plot ("it is a Western that uses the usual gunfights as a last resort").

[7] In his investigation of narrative structures in Spaghetti Western films, Fridlund counts Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead among the many stories about an infiltrator with a hidden agenda that took their inspiration from A Fistful of Dollars.