[1] It is loosely based on the real life events of Giuseppe Albano, an Italian partisan that was involved in the Roman Resistance against German occupation between 1943 and 1945.

After the liberation of Italy, together with members of his gang, Alvaro begins a life of crime, which causes the locals to label him as dangerous.

The film is inspired by the true story of Giuseppe Albano, known as the "hunchback of the Quarticciolo" and is set against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation and the post-war period of the Roman villages, presented in a neorealist style by Carlo Lizzani.

Of note in this film is one of Pier Paolo Pasolini's first appearances on screen in the part of Leandro known as "er monco".

Broadcast on RAI for the first time in 1975, a few months before the killing of Pier Paolo Pasolini, with viewer discretion advised due to the crudeness of the subject and the dramatic sequence in which the actress Anna Maria Ferrero is seen from behind.