Deguello - Theme From “Rio Bravo“

Rio Bravo is a 1959 American Western film, directed by Howard Hawks. The script was written by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett, based on a short story by B.H. McCampbell. It stars John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson, with Angie Dickinson, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, Ward Bond, and Walter Brennan. El Degüello means “no mercy“ or “to put to the sword“. The literal translation is “a throat slitting“. Originally a bugle call, it was used by Howard Hawks in the 1959 flick, “Rio Bravo“. The musical score was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin. His score contains the haunting tune “El Degüello,“ which is played several times to build tension. A character (Colorado, played by Nelson) identifies the tune as “The Cutthroat Song“. He relates the song’s historical playing on the orders of Antonio López de Santa Anna to the Texans holed up in the Alamo to signify that no quarter would be given. The tune was used in the following year, over the opening credits of Wayne’s film, The Alamo. Composer Ennio Morricone recalled director Sergio Leone requesting him to write “Dimitri Tiomkin music“ for A Fistful of Dollars. The trumpet theme is similar to Tiomkin’s “Deguella“ while the Italian title of Rio Bravo was Un Dollaro D’onore.