Third Man Out: A Donald Strachey Mystery (2005)

“Rutka” (Jack Wetherall) is a fairly outspoken gay advocate who thinks nothing of outing people, and who is consequently fairly unpopular. When he starts to fear for his life, he engages the services of very reluctant PI “Strachey” (Chad Allen) to look through his innumerable files and try to isolate a culprit. There’s isn’t exactly a shortage of potential assassins, indeed he himself might be one, but when the inevitable does happen he determines to find out whodunnit. Aside from one scene of entirely pointless gratuitous nudity, there is very little to distinguish this from your bog standard edition of the “Rockford Files” only, of course, there is a gay agenda as it taps into homophobia, closeted lifestyles, the duplicitous role of the church and politicians as well as maybe the most timely leak in a ceiling that you’ll ever see. Allen does fine with these “Strachey” adventures and aided ably by his beau “Timmy” (Sebastian Spence) there’s precious little jeopardy throughout for us to worry about as the investigation gathers pace and it uses the plot to expose some of the societal attitudes and hypocrisies facing people who are not open about their sexuality, or who take advantage of their position to abuse. I didn’t really like the conclusion so much. Aside from it being really quite predicable, it also had an element of an eye for an eye to it that perhaps could just have been left implied rather than demonstrated. Still, it’s a light-hearted mystery with a message and it’s worth ninety minutes.