Working title

Ice Blues (2008) is a straight-to-video mystery movie starring Chad Allen as Don Strachey, a gay private investigator based in Albany, NY and Sebastian Spence as his partner, Tim Callahan, who works in state government.

A young lawyer is murdered after approaching Callahan about a large charitable donation on behalf of an unidentified client who insists the money go to help kids. When the donation shows up in Callahan’s office in the form of bearer bonds, and his life is threatened, he engages Strachey to investigate the source of the money. The investigation leads to a family law firm with criminal ties, a 12-year-old unsolved murder, and the reasons the money has to go to help kids.

Ice Blues is the fourth and probably final film adaptation of a Don Strachey mystery novel by Richard Stevenson. There are 17 books in the series, starting with Death Trick, published in 1981, and ending with Chasing Rembrandt, published posthumously 2023. Four of the novels were Lambda Literary Award finalists, and one was a winner. All four film adaptations were GLAAD Media Award nominees recognizing their positive depiction of LGBTQ characters.

In a case of art imitating life, the first Strachey adaptation, Third Man Out, has Strachey protecting the publisher of a tabloid receiving death threats for outing prominent figures. Series star Allen, having been a child actor and a bit of a teen heartthrob, was outed by a tabloid when he was 21.

The Strachey film adaptations were low-budget productions and it showed. Apparently they were filmed out of order because one takes place in winter and faking winter wasn’t in their budget. The fight choreography is reminiscent of 80’s cop shows – one-punch knockouts and inexplicable judo throws. And the acting is very inconsistent; Sebastian Spence as Tim Callahan is particularly bad. He and Allen had no chemistry at all. On the other hand, these are gritty detective stories, and gritty realism is easy to achieve when there’s no money.

I’ve been reading mystery/crime novels since I was a kid and the Strachey novels were the first that I discovered that featured a gay protagonist. It was nice to see the TV adaptations made, even if the quality was iffy. The movies were made for Here TV, a streaming service that produces LGBTQ-themed content. It’s been almost 20 years; I’d love to see another adaptation, but this time by a company with some deeper pockets.

Side Note – as a child, Chad Allen played Tommy Westphall, a doctor’s son with autism on the medical drama St. Elsewhere. In the final episode, it was revealed that the entire show took place in Tommy’s imagination. Due to various character crossovers, it would follow that the X-files, Homicide: Life on the Street, the Law & Order, Chicago, and FBI franchises, Arrested Development, and the Simpsons are all part of the Tommy Westphall Universe.