A Spanish-Italian co-production, the movie was shot in Almeria, Spain, and director Julio Buchs imbued it with a sweaty, dusty atmosphere typical of such westerns. It was made under the working title Vengeance is Mine, and was released as such in some countries. In Italy, it was titled Those Desperate Men Who Smell of Dirt and Death.
In a 2007 interview with Roger A. Fratter, George Hilton characterized himself as "a sunny kind of person" and called his role in this movie unusually "serious and dramatic." A Uruguayan actor, Hilton had already established himself as a spaghetti western star in such films as Any Gun Can Play (1967). A year after A Bullet For Sandoval, he'd star in I am Sartana, Trade Your Guns for a Coffin (1970).
Variety criticized this picture for its badly dubbed dialogue ("Silence, you dog!" Borgnine spits) and slow pace, but noted that "Julio Bruchs's graphically interesting staging, Francisco Sempere's photography, and the story line, a sort of sagebrush vendetta, are the elements of a much better picture." The climactic bullring sequence, Variety added, was "stunningly staged and photographed."
By Jeremy Arnold
