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 Glory Road
Release Date: 1958-10-07A preacher with a past is blackmailed into helping a murderer escape from jail.
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Episode 2 - Show of a Doubt
Release Date: 1958-10-14A green ranger, accused of cowardice by his fellow lawmen, must lead his compatriots in a desperate attack on an Apache camp to rescue a young captive.
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Episode 3 - Man in Hiding
Release Date: 1958-10-21A miner (Harry Shannon) informs the Rangers that a wanted killer is in hiding---but he won't say where.
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Episode 4 - Cross and Doublecross
Release Date: 1958-10-27The wary Rangers allow an outlaw to lead them to a den of thieves.
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Episode 5 - The Last Rebellion
Release Date: 1958-11-04When an Apache inadvertently kills an elderly chief, the Rangers set out to defend him against his Apache accusers.
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Episode 6 - Brief Glory
Release Date: 1958-11-11A meek, hen-pecked bank teller is accused of complicity in a bank hold-up when he is the only employee in the bank when an outlaw gang robs the Bisbee bank. The teller is so taken with the attention and publicity his case is garnering that he refuses to admit that he had nothing to do with the crime. Rynning is convinced of the man's innocence and grants the gang's leader a 24-hour immunity to testify at the man's trial.
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Episode 7 - Dog Eat Dog
Release Date: 1958-11-18The people of Durando are caught in a power duel between their marshal and their sheriff.
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Episode 8 - Judge Not
Release Date: 1958-11-25A rancher recently released from a mental hospital avenges himself upon the men who committed him.
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Episode 9 - My Brothers Keeper
Release Date: 1958-12-02When two of his sons return from Cuban POW camps after the Spanish-American War, a rancher decides it's time to reopen a feud between his kin and a rancher who purchased most of his land when he failed to pay his real estate taxes.
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Episode 10 - Run No More
Release Date: 1958-12-09With only hours left before a hanging, Rynning desperately seeks evidence that might stay the accused's execution. Meanwhile the real murderers threaten the life of the witness whose perjured testimony sent the wrong man to the gallows.
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Episode 11 - Manhunt
Release Date: 1958-12-16A poker game in Nogales, Arizona turns sour when one of the participants is accused of crooked dealing. After the accused shoots the accuser and makes off with all the cash, the manhunt for the perpetrator quickly leads to an arrest - the real killer's identical twin brother. The rangers desperately search for murderer before a lynch mob hangs an innocent man.
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Episode 12 - The Avenger
Release Date: 1958-12-23A young man joins the Arizona Rangers and dedicates himself to becoming a quick draw artist. Rynning learns that the new lawman forged his letter of introduction and is only interested in avenging himself upon the man who killed his outlaw father - Clint Travis.
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Episode 13 - False Witness
Release Date: 1958-12-30When a wealthy land owner accused of murder can't bribe the circuit judge, he turns to witness intimidation to escape conviction. The judge requests Capt. Rynning to protect those called to testify.
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Episode 14 - The Torch
Release Date: 1959-01-06When teacher after teach is run out of a small gold mining town, Rynning is order to investigate. His first day in the schoolhouse involves some two-fisted lessons.
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Episode 15 - Trail of Revenge
Release Date: 1959-01-13A murderous escaped prisoner returns to his ranch and finds his wife has departed. He forces one of her old friends to find her while he holds the friend's wife as a hostage.
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Episode 16 - The Hellion
Release Date: 1959-01-20A young man, recently found not guilty of being a thief, is framed for the murder of his girlfriend by a romantic rival.
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Episode 17 - Ranger Without a Badge
Release Date: 1959-01-27A card shark agrees to help Rynning and Travis break up a gang of sheep rustlers.
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Episode 18 - Showdown
Release Date: 1959-02-03Ralph Kincaid, a wealthy rancher, catches his son, Juro, stealing money from his desk so he can pay his gambling debts and brutally beats him. The next day, the father is found murdered and the evidence seems to point to his son as the killer. During the trial, Captain Rynning discovers incontrovertible that the young man was incarcerated in another town at the time of the murder after suffering from a blackout. The ranger thinks the explanation is too pat, though, and searches for Juro's murderous accomplice.
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Episode 19 - Long Trail Home
Release Date: 1959-02-10A convict breaks out of Yuma prison and offers to help Captain Rynning round up the rest of his outlaw gang.
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Episode 20 - Death in the Dragoons
Release Date: 1959-02-17Rynning must make a difficult decision when he learns that the woman he rescued is wanted for murder.
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Episode 21 - Ricochet
Release Date: 1959-02-24Three wild brothers who were driven out of town years ago return to warn the citizens of an impending attack by a gang of outlaws, but their warning isn't believed when one of their bullets ricochet's off a church bell and kills a man.
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Episode 22 - House Divided
Release Date: 1959-03-03A man whose wife was killed during an Indian raid is incensed when his brother takes an Apache woman to be his wife and encourages other Indians to settle in the town of which he is one of the founders. The man takes his racial prejudice so far as to hire a gang of gunslingers to drive the Indians from the town and his brother's wife along with them.
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Episode 23 - Profane Masquerade
Release Date: 1959-03-10An outlaw's girlfriend convinces her sister, a nun, to lend her a habit so she can travel to Nogales to be with him.
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Episode 24 - Dead or Alive
Release Date: 1959-03-17Rynning runs into unexpected trouble while investigating a murder.
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Episode 25 - The Has-Been
Release Date: 1959-03-24The territorial governor orders Rhynning to clean up prize fighting in Arizona. The Ranger captain focuses his attention on Barker, a promoter who offer $500 to anyone who can stay in the ring for four rounds with his champion. The problem is that, while suckers throw their money away betting on the challenger, there's nothing illegal about the promoter's activities.
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Episode 26 - The Unwanted
Release Date: 1959-03-31The economic recession afflicting Arizona after the Spanish-American War hits the young veterans returning to civilian life the hardest. A young veteran, his sister and three friends try to make a go of farming by squatting on land claimed by other homesteaders resulting in bloodshed. The sister decides to become a dance hall girl to raise enough money for the group to eat with only to find out that the hall's owner is interested in more than her ability to dance the Can-Can.
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Episode 27 - Live and Let Die
Release Date: 1959-04-07An ex-convict, declared legally dead by his wife when he went to prison under an assumed name, returns to Yuma to kill her new husband, a former partner-in-crime who has reformed.
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Episode 28 - Trial at Verde River
Release Date: 1959-04-14A young lawyer returns home to litigate water rights controlled by a crooked businessman and learns his senior partner has been bribing witnesses to aid the company he is representing.
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Episode 29 - Scorpion
Release Date: 1959-04-21Ben Haddock, a recently hired trail boss, is fired by Red Emerson for dating his daughter. The two men have an argument over the money owed to the foreman resulting in the Ben shooting Red and taking the money he feels he is owed. Travis rides out to arrest Haddock but is stung by a scorpion and cowhand flees leaving the ranger to die.
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Episode 30 - The Last Kill
Release Date: 1959-04-28While Travis tries to convince a representative from Washington that Arizona no longer subscribes to gun law, Rynning tries to prevent an ex-convict from exacting revenge upon a Yuma businessman whose perjured testimony sent him to prison.
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Episode 31 - Redskin
Release Date: 1959-05-05A decorated Indian war hero becomes involved with a quack who's selling phony cure-alls after he finds his own tribe will have nothing to do with him.
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Episode 32 - Cave-In
Release Date: 1959-05-12A crusading editor learns that funds for mine safety equipment have been embezzled.
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Episode 33 - Terror in Paradise
Release Date: 1959-05-19Two saloon girls witness a prominent business man murder his partner. After giving evidence at the coroner's hearing, an agent for the accused tries to bribe them to leave town. When they refuse, the agent hires a gunman to kidnap the women so they can't testify at the trial.
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Episode 34 - Fighting Men
Release Date: 1959-05-26Rynning offers Vin Carter, Tucson's tough and honest marshal, a position in the Rangers, but Vin turns him down because of his sour relationship with the town's business community. When Carter's fiancée is seriously injured and desperately needs an operation, Vin begins to reconsider his stance on integrity.
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Episode 35 - Tumbleweed Ranger
Release Date: 1959-06-02Rynning orders Frank Seldom to meet a stagecoach heading from New Mexico to Wilcox, Arizona to ensure its cargo of six lovely mail-order brides arrive unscathed. Seldom has his hands full fending off marauding Apache Indians, crooked stagecoach drivers and an outlaw gang who intends to kidnap the women and sell them to white slavers in Mexico.
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Episode 36 - The Tiger
Release Date: 1959-06-09When a gang of American outlaws takes over a Mexican border town, Colonel Kesterlitzky aka 'El Tigre' of the Mexican Rurales requests the assistance of Captain Rynning to recapture the town.
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Episode 37 - Abandoned
Release Date: 1959-06-16One of Kelton's riders reports that his son has been abducted by a group of Apaches led by Cochise himself. Rynning quickly organizes a posse to pursue the renegades, but their rescue mission is dogged by misfortune and, eventually, murder. The rangers begin to suspect that a member of their posse is in cahoots with the abductors, who may not be Indians after all.
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Episode 38 - Bandit Queen
Release Date: 1959-06-23Rynning and his rangers try to outwit a beautiful, clever outlaw.
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Episode 39 - Refuge at Broken Bow
Release Date: 1959-06-30A young boy must choose between respect for the law and loyalty to his two outlaw uncles.