26 Men (1957)
26 Men is a syndicated American western television series about the Arizona Rangers, an elite group commissioned in 1901 by the legislature of the Arizona Territory and limited, for financial reasons, to twenty-six active members. Russell Hayden was the producer of the series and the co-composer of the theme song. The series aired between October 15, 1957 and June 30, 1959, for a total of 78 episodes.
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Episode 1 - The Recruit
Release Date: 1957-10-15The newspaper editor of Wilcox asks the Rangers for help, and two of them are dispatched to the town. However, when they get there they find the editor has been lynched and is hanging from a tree.
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Episode 2 - Trouble At Pinnacle Peak
Release Date: 1957-10-22A gang of desperadoes cuts a swath of murder and robbery across the whole Arizona Territory, laughing at the Rangers attempts to bring them to heel. Since the gang uses every trick in the book to cover their tracks, Rynning hires an Apache tracker to find the outlaws.
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Episode 3 - The Wild Bunch
Release Date: 1957-10-29A member of the notorious Wild Bunch bandit gang escapes from Ranger Clint Travis' custody, resulting in his being fired. Furious, Travis sets out to take on the whole gang and salvage his career and reputation.
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Episode 4 - Border Incident
Release Date: 1957-11-05Clint Travis goes undercover as a gun smuggler to stop Mexican revolutionary Juan Morales' plans to topple the Mexican government.
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Episode 5 - Destination Nowhere
Release Date: 1957-11-12The Rangers set out to stop a smuggling ring that's bringing Chinese immigrants across the Colorado River.
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Episode 6 - Incident at Yuma
Release Date: 1957-11-19A gang of convicts has escaped from prison, but Capt. Rynning's can't get any more men to help capture them.
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Episode 7 - The Slater Brothers
Release Date: 1957-11-26When Clint Travis is falsely accused of Murder. Rynning sends him into Galioro Mountains to prove his innocence by finding the cattle rustlers who actually committed the crime.
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Episode 8 - Dead Man In Tucson
Release Date: 1957-12-03Travis goes after escaped con Cain Devers, a bank robber and counterfeiter who is using his counterfeit plates as part of a plot to destroy his father and younger brother.
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Episode 9 - Man on the Run
Release Date: 1957-12-10A Ranger suddenly resigns without explanation. Rynning tries to discover what's behind it and finds that the man is hiding a secret that he won't take a chance on anyone finding out about.
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Episode 10 - The Big Rope
Release Date: 1957-12-17The wife of a preacher who recently established a mission for Apaches living near Galeyville receives a suspicious telegram and fears her husband has been murdered. Travis learns that a lynch mob hung two Indians accused of being horse thieves and the minister who tried to prevent the hanging. He also discovers that, in a moment of cowardice, the town sheriff failed to prevent the hangings.
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Episode 11 - Valley of Fear
Release Date: 1957-12-24Travis poses as an outlaw in what seems to be a very peaceful valley to try to find the reason behind the disappearance of a U.S. Marshal.
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Episode 12 - Indian Gunslinger
Release Date: 1957-12-31An Apache inherits a small ranch and his white neighbors don't care for the idea of having an Indian for a neighbor.
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Episode 13 - Trail of Darkness
Release Date: 1958-01-07Rynning and Travis investigate when a number of women are murdered in a small Arizona town. Since the circumstances surrounding each murder are identical, the rangers fear that they are trying to capture a psychopathic misogynist. When Travis finds a footprint with a distinctive heel mark near the body, the lawmen search the surrounding area for the owner of such a boot.
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Episode 14 - Trade Me Deadly
Release Date: 1958-01-14In order to prevent the hanging of their gang members a family of outlaws kidnaps the daughter of the commander of an army post instructing him to release his prisoner or the young woman will meet the same fate. When the army carries out the execution anyway, Rynning, Travis and two undercover Army officers must free the girl before word of the gang members death leaks out.
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Episode 15 - Violent Land
Release Date: 1958-01-21Ranger Joe Pierce captures a pair of outlaws and turns them over to a sheriff for safe keeping. Sheriff Brennan recognizes that one of the outlaws is a dead ringer for the son of a wealthy rancher who went missing in action while serving in the military and uses the chance for to earn some quick cash so he can woo a pretty saloon girl.
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Episode 16 - Panic at Bisbee
Release Date: 1958-02-04Unemployed miners threaten to burn down the Bisbee bank unless they can withdraw money from their accounts. Unfortunately, the local office doesn't have enough money to meet their demands, so they must pull cash from other locations to survive. Travis is ordered to guard the shipment and must deal with corrupt businessmen and crooks with itchy trigger fingers to get the money through on time.
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Episode 17 - Insurrection
Release Date: 1958-02-11The careless activities of a former Ranger (Walter Kelly) have Mexico and Arizona on the brink of war.
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Episode 18 - Slaughter Trail
Release Date: 1958-02-18The Rangers try to capture a ruthless cattle baron and his gang.
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Episode 19 - Gun Hand
Release Date: 1958-02-25An Arizona Ranger is shot in the arm while attempting to thwart a hold-up. He convinces the doctor not to inform Captain Rynning of the seriousness of his injury until he can at least try to regain his shooting form. His fiancée fears that he will be no match for the outlaws who are hijacking gold shipments near his station.
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Episode 20 - Cattle Embargo
Release Date: 1958-03-04While trying to enforce the embargo placed on Mexican cattle, an Arizona ranger is shot and left for dead by a trio of cowboys. One of the cowmen takes pity on the wounded lawman and takes him to a nearby ranch for medical assistance. Rynning is determined to bring the shooter to justice and break up the cross-border cattle trade to an end.
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Episode 21 - Badge to Kill
Release Date: 1958-03-11After a shipment of gold guarded by the Arizona Rangers is stolen, the U.S. Marshals assigned to the region accuse Ranger Ben Thorpe of complicity in the theft.
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Episode 22 - Montezuma's Cave
Release Date: 1958-03-18Rynning and Travis assist the Mexican Rurales hunt down the remnants of an army of bandits who sought to overthrow the government. During the chase, one of the outlaws is killed by the border patrol and incorrectly identified as the movement's commander, Romero. Meanwhile, the erstwhile leader assumes the identity of a poor peon and goes in search of the loot from a train robbery hidden nearly ten years earlier.
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Episode 23 - Sundown Decision
Release Date: 1958-03-25Kevin Hardy, a rancher who is about to be released from prison gets a visit from his crippled brother, Arron, who goads him into taking revenge against the former sheriff who arrested him for manslaughter. Meanwhile Arron has hired an outlaw to kill his brother and frame the ex-lawman for the crime.
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Episode 24 - The Parrish Gang
Release Date: 1958-04-01Clint Travis works his way into the heart of a gang of bank robbers.
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Episode 25 - Hoax at Globe
Release Date: 1958-04-08During an election campaign for the office of Sheriff of Globe, Arizona, a crooked drifter plots to embarrass the incumbent by bringing in an "escaped" prisoner he took from Ranger Clint Travis' custody the day before the election. To make his election more likely, his gang robs the town's express office and shooting the Sheriff's leading advocate while Harding is out of town helping the Rangers locate their escaped prisoner.
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Episode 26 - Bounty Hunters
Release Date: 1958-04-15After a rancher is convicted of robbery based upon flimsy circumstantial evidence, his young brother in law appeals to Captain Rynning to find the real criminals.
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Episode 27 - Apache Winter
Release Date: 1958-04-22The Rangers try to convince a group of settlers illegally homesteading on the Apache reservation to leave before violence occurs.
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Episode 28 - Legacy of Death
Release Date: 1958-04-29Tom Rynning learns that Bart Evans' will includes a clause that requires Betty Evans to give $10,000 to the man the rancher hired to killer the Ranger captain - and his daughter is willing to pay the bounty.
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Episode 29 - Chain Gang
Release Date: 1958-05-06Arizona's territorial governor orders Rynning to investigate reports of abuses by prison guards of convicts working on chain gangs.
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Episode 30 - The Bells of St. Thomas
Release Date: 1958-05-13Captain Rynning and several of his Rangers join a posse to smoke out the remnants of Luke Baxter's gang. The outlaws momentarily give the posse the slip and double back to take refuge in a mission school run for the reservation's Indian children and hold the priests and the youngsters as hostages.
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Episode 31 - Hondo Man
Release Date: 1958-05-20A reformed gunman is forced to take up arms after he finds a Ranger murdered.
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Episode 32 - The Vanquisher
Release Date: 1958-05-27Ranger Andrew Shoreham requests a leave of absence after receiving a plea from his wife to return to his home and help her move. When his request is denied, Shoreham resigns, but Rynning has a change of heart and orders the ranger to Kelso to drive out the outlaws who have taken over the town.
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Episode 33 - The Ranger and the Lady
Release Date: 1958-06-03Rynning and Travis are urged to come to Bisbee when trouble arises when women demand the right to vote.
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Episode 34 - Idol in the Dust
Release Date: 1958-06-10Captain Rynning sends Travis to Duncan, Arizona to investigate reports that legendary lawman Ben Salem has thrown in with the crooked town boss to keep the residents under his thrall. Travis can't believe the reports since he lived with Salem in his salad days, but soon learns that the his former idol was crippled by a gunshot and was forced to find work as a hired gun.
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Episode 35 - Runaway Stage
Release Date: 1958-06-17The attorney general and the local businessman ask that Andy Shoreham be forced to resign from Rangers because of the wild days in his youth. Rynning backs the young ranger, but when he's knocked off the stagecoach he's supposed to be guarding and the stage disappears along with the silver shipment it contained, calls for his dismissal are renewed.
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Episode 36 - Wayward Gun
Release Date: 1958-06-24Bud Larch, a short man constantly being teased about his height, turns robber and killer to prove he's as tough as anyone in Arizona.
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Episode 37 - Hole Up
Release Date: 1958-07-01While escorting an Apache Indian to prison, Travis stops by a remote railroad station for food and water and learns that Bert Alvord and his partner have just held up the train. While awaiting reinforcement, Alvord returns to the station and abducts the station master's granddaughter in order to obtain food and water.
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Episode 38 - Unholy Partners
Release Date: 1958-07-08Rynning and Travis investigate the hijacking of a valuable freight wagon and are aided by the youngest member of the outlaw gang who has second thoughts about a criminal career.
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Episode 39 - Killer's Trail
Release Date: 1958-07-15When four murderers break out of Yuma Prison, Rynning mobilizes his entire force to capture the escapees.