Happy Go Lovely - 1951 -This film, which included David Niven and Vera Ellen, featuring the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band, under the leadership of Pipe Major Donald Shaw Ramsay, marching down the Mound in Edinburgh.
The Hasty Heart - 1949 - Ronald Reagan and Bagpipes! Richard Todd stars as a mean bastard piping Scot who gets a kidney blown out on one of the last days of World War II. He ends up in a multi-national hospital where everyone else hates him until they find out that he's dying. Reagan's character recalls his grandfather "MAC" from the old country and how much he hates the pipes as a result.
The Hasty Heart - 1983 (TV) This is a remake for TV and is out on video. It stars Gregory Harrison as the Scot, Cheryl Ladd as the nurse, and Perry Lang as the Yank. Harrison was Executive Producer. The pipes are apparently played behind a screen.
Hawkeye - (TV series inspired by the movie, Last of the Mohicans, and starring Lee Horsley and Linda Carter) There is an episode where a single piper leads the British Troops out of the fort. The series was all shot in B.C. and used a replica fort built up in Seymour Mountain water shed above Vancouver.
Heaven Help Us (a.k.a. Catholic Boys) -1985 - the piper may be Dennis Brooks? Does anyone know?
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Help! - 1965 92 minutes - This is a Beatles movie. At one point the four walk past a mini-parade of bagpipers. One of the bagpipes tries to squirt red paint on Ringo so he can be sacrificed.
Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown - 1997 105 minutes. This is the story of a friendship between Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and her highland servant, John Brown (Billy Connolly). The pipes appear on two occasions during a visit to the royal residence in Scotland: Balmoral Castle. When the royal party arrives, they are greeted by The Cock of the North (and a pained comment from a Sassenach, "Oh God, the pipes"). On the way to, and at, a picnic by a burn, we hear some more 6/8s: The Atholl Highlanders and The Blue Bonnets over the Border. During Atholl, the beat on the sound track is almost in sync with the fingers and feet. Throughout the movie, John Brown wears a military-pattern sporran. Apparently at the time, this was considered appropriate civilian day wear.
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Hi Breasil -195?- Apparently produced by an Italian studio in the late 1950s and dubbed into English. The basic plot seems to be derived from both Celtic legend (see, Celtic Mythology: The Island of Many Wonders .) and knowledge of Easter Island (see, the modern film, Rapa Nui ). The story tells of an American archaeologist's (nationality undoubtedly chosen for marketing purposes) search for the mythical Celtic Island of Hi Breasil (Gaelic for fantastic place?). He stumbles onto an internecine battle between rival clans: the Clàrsairean (harpers), and the Piobairean (pipers) which extend their muscial prowess to the creation of giant effigies. The controversy seems to turn on whether the harper clan or the piper clan has the skills to move the giant statues from the distant quarry and raise it first on the prominence over the sea. There is the obligatory love triangle between a female Clàrsair, a male Piobair and the interloper archaeloogist. The score is a strange composite of bad harp music and bad pipe music, as though Morricone had decided to score his spaghetti westerns in the West Hebrides. Incongruously in the midst of this pastiche, there is one good piobaireachd. Has anyone been able to identify it?
High Incident - TV On the debut episode (1996), a policeman is shot and killed. Aaron Shaw (see next reference also) is the piper for the funeral where he plays When the Battle's Over. Not a bad segment at all. You get to hear the entire tune, with occasional glimpses of the piper.
High Incident - TV, episode #11 - Blue Christmas - Aired on Dec 12, 1996. The band, Wicked Tinkers played the role of homless street musicians with John MacAdams and Warren Casey playing percussion on buckets, but Aaron Shaw playing the pipes. There is information on the Wicked Tinkers at two sites: The Jester's Court and Gael Force .
Highlander - 1985 111 minutes. Directed by Russell Mulcahy, starring Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, and Sean Connery as MacLeod's mentor. The film starts with a sword fight in New York but then jumps back in time to a clan battle in 16th century Scotland. The soundtrack was written by Michael Kamen (known for "Robin Hood: Prince of Theives" soundtrack). There are pipes played as the clan MacLeod emerges across the bridge of Eilean Donan Castle to go to battle with the Frasers, as well as in the battle scene. After the battle, there is also a beautiful scene where a piper plays Macintosh's lament outside the castle at sunset. There are also pipes in a village scene where people are dancing.
Highlander II - The Quickening - 1991 96 minutes. Directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, this is a sequel to Highlander, mentioned above. It hops about in time and place with several story lines. The piper is Stuart Copeland. As Sean Connery is walking around Glasgow (or was it Edinburgh?) a piper can be seen on a street corner playing High Road to Gairloch. Later in the film, Connery and Chris Lambert sword fight to High Road... although this time it's played on the clarinet or some other lesser instrument. Apparently, also as Ramirez is about to die for the second time (sniffle), Amazing Grace can be heard in the background.
The Highlander III - another sequel, according to Patrick Hutchinson who did the piping in it, this may well be the worst movie ever made!!
Highlander (TV)- TV series
1st season episode, called "Eyewitness."
There is solo pipe music, The Mist Covered Mountains, in the background
in a scene where the owner of an antique shop is trying to sell an old, scarred
bronze shield with a story of how the good Scottish steel swords pierced the
English bronze.
4th season premiere, called Homeland
(late September 1995). Duncan returns to the Highlands to the tune of Bonny
Portmore played by Loreena McKennitt on the Uilleann pipes rather than
the Great Highland Pipes. Often flicks involving the pipes offer anachronisms;
would the word, anageographism, be appropriate here.
Hills of Home (a.k a. Master of Lassie) - 1948, MGM, This is a Lassie movie directed by Fred M Wilcox, the movie is set in Scotland. Towards the end there is a funeral scene where 3 pipers lead the way from the church to the grave.
Hill Street Blues (TV) In Episode #3413, the Hill Street police station is overrun by a rodent population. An exterminator is called to rid the station of the rats, but the exterminator does it by sound (I thought the city of Hamelin held the copyright on this plot). The first exterminator arrives and plays an accordion which does not work in driving out the rodent population. Then his partner arrives with a set of great highland bagpipes and proceeds to play throughout the station, which does the trick. (Inspired by this insight, I tried it. Alas, the pipes are actually more effective on our cat --- which is known to have inordinately bad taste in music --- than on mice).
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - two Grande Cornemuse players are featured in the opening scene. I actually found there were three different versions of this movie so I don't really know which one has the piping in it. Can anyone help out?
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Hot Scots - (The Three Stooges). -1948 A short where Moe, Larry, and Shemp play three knuckleheads who want to be detectives with Scotland Yard. They are given jobs as groundskeepers instead. A piece of paper blows out of the Chief Inspector's window with details of a case in Scotland, and they pick up the paper and decide to take the case to prove themselves. They show up at the castle in full Highland gear. The film is in black and white, but the kilts appear to be a Stuart tartan. Shemp has his kilt on backwards, and his sporran hanging in the rear. They meet the Laird, and are given the assignment of watching his valuables while he attends a social function. His beautiful secretary, Lorna Doone, is also on hand. There are some masked burglars attempting to steal the valuables, assisted from the inside. Pipes are played on a record, while Moe does a Highland Fling with Lorna, and right at the end a skeleton is shown playing (a trifle awkwardly) some pipes to the same soundtrack. Typical Stooge antics throughout. Directed by Edward Bernds.