This week PJ and I watched Third Man Out, a gay detective movie originally made for TV. It stars Chad Allen, who was relatively famous as a child actor and who later made headlines when he came out, as Donald Strachey, a gumshoe who refuses to help a gay client because of the client’s method of outing famous people against their will, only to find out that the client was subsquently murdered. He therefore resolves to find out who did it.

Here’s the preview:

This is a surprisingly good little movie. It’s sexy — there’s a bit of male hotness here and there. It’s fun — there’s humor and the director, Ron Oliver, has a good time checking off all of the cliches of the genre. It’s romantic — Chad Allen and Sebastian Spence are the gay Jonathan and Jennifer Hart. It’s a little predictable, but it nevertheless manages to have a few suprizes.

It’s great to see a romantic gay couple at the center of a movie. It’s even better that a significant number of people involved in the film, including the director and lead actor, are openly gay. I, for one, am tired of watching gay movies only to see actor after actor reaffirm their heterosexuality in the special features. I definitely enjoy a movie more when I know it features gay men in the cast and gay people behind the scenes.

I also enjoyed seeing Jack Wetherall, who played Vic on Queer as Folk, again. I found it difficult to see him as the jerk John Rutka in this movie — I just kept seeing Uncle Vic with long hair. Porn star Matthew Rush also has a small part — he’s becoming quite the routine performer in independent gay movies; his cameo in Another Gay Movie was hilarious.

Third Man Out isn’t the best movie ever, but it is better than the run-of-the-mill gay production. I look forward to seeing the sequel.