I did not want Mahana to have to compare herself to the other women in the village. “I have known I wanted her to be my bride for a long time. “I have loved Mahana since we were children,” Johnny tells him, once Mahana is out of earshot. No longer a fretful, manic-depressive harpy with greasy hair, she is now a perky, well-groomed wife in a tight red dress, a large hibiscus tucked behind her ear. Shopkeeper is greeted at the door by Johnny and Mahana. Shopkeeper goes looking for Johnny Lingo, who never returned to pick up the costly mirror he ordered.Īrriving at the hut, Mr. The last we see of the couple, they’re paddling off in a canoe for another island. All her neighbors show up to eat free roast pig, but Mahana mopes, completely humiliated, with a crown of wilting flowers on her head. The marriage ceremony is terrible for Mahana. Everyone is completely befuddled, including the hapless audience. What’s more, Johnny Lingo has now come to the shop to buy Mahana a wedding present – a fancy hand-held mirror. ![]() It must be some kind of mistake.”īut it’s not a mistake. “No one has EVER paid eight cows for a bride. The village gossip can’t run through the village fast enough spreading the news. “I will pay eight cows for your Mahana,” Johnny tells her dad. And he didn’t pay with a cow that gives sour milk. But it doesn’t matter – Johnny Lingo buys her anyway. The next morning at the bridal auction Mahana is still sitting in the tree. “I’ll be lucky to get a cow that gives sour milk in trade for her,” her father laments to a wise village elder, who is also trying to convince Mahana to come down from the tree. When we first see her, in fact, this is where she is – hiding behind the shadows of the huge, tropical leaves, high in the tree. She hides out in the tree in front of her father’s hut. “Why, you’d be lucky to get two horns and a tail for that girl!” I heard he is going to ask for Mahana’s hand in marriage.” Shopkeeper, “That Johnny Lingo is looking for a bargain. Shopkeeper’s floor, has a little bit of info he can’t help but share. The village gossip, who happens to be the kid who sweeps Mr. ![]() Girls in grass skirts, cheesy leis and muumuus giggle and scatter. He would pay five cows for a bride – and the bidding begins tomorrow! Johnny Lingo! Why, he’s the most successful trader to have come from these parts! The prodigal son has returned … to look for a bride, no less! He will buy the most beautiful woman in the village, because Johnny Lingo can afford a FIVE COW woman! Yes, that’s right folks. Instantly, there is a ruckus in the village. ![]() He finally arrives at the village and announces to the imperialistic yet kindly white shopkeeper who has set up a general store on this unnamed island: “He comes, he comes! Johnny Lingo! Johnny Lingo!” This scene goes on for a very, very long time – which is ok, because the music is interesting enough. ![]() It’s the fastest, wobbliest surf music I’ve ever heard in my life.Īs this soundtrack plays, a boy in a grass skirt is running through the wild landscape of an unnamed Polynesian island. Imagine the Ventures visit the land of Where the Wild Things Are, on Ritalin and Theraflu. The opening scenes of Johnny Lingo are matched with a soundtrack I would pay serious money to own. If you’re still not familiar with the film, perhaps you’ve seen Cipher in the Snow, an elementary school staple that was released by BYU around the same time. It’s from Johnny Lingo, a flick made at Brigham Young University in 1969, and distributed by Encyclopedia Britannica. If you are not LDS, howver, you probably don’t recognize the reference. This is perhaps one of the most striking lines in 20th Century cinema.
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