26 Men

This was a good, solid Western about the Arizona Rangers with Tris Coffin giving a fine performance every week. Worth seeing if it ever shows up somewhere. It also seemed to be a bridge between the kiddie Westerns (like Roy Rogers or Hopalong) and such adult fare as Have Gun Will Travel. 26 Men also had THE BEST THEME SONG OF ALL THE WESTERNS: "This is the story of 26 men who rode the Arizona territory. . . 26 men who lived to ride again rode out to answer duty's call; 26 men who lived to fight again rode out for the right and the liberty of all". With a great driving beat!

For the most part - I quite enjoyed viewing the episodes from this well-produced, American TV Western which ran for just 2 seasons (1957-1959). I certainly found that most of "26 Mens'" story-lines had a real nice, rugged, and masculine edge to them (which sure appealed to me).

Set mainly in the year 1901 - The stories from "26 Men" focused their attention in on the law-enforcement activities of an elite group of dedicated men whose territory of patrol spanned throughout the entire state of Arizona, USA.

The tales that were told in these episodes were, apparently, based on true accounts which had been taken directly from the files recorded by the organization's commanding officer.

My favorite actor in this series was Kelo Henderson (1923-2019) who played the Ranger, Clint Travis character. Kelo's character had appeared in almost every episode.

Why is this wonderful character actor never mentioned in the character actor books? I remember seeing a revival of old movie serials in which Mr. Coffin starred as "Rocket Man." Since, I have seen him pop up in countless films including "My Dream Is Yours," in which he has a brief scene with Doris Day and Eve Arden as the head waiter at the Cocoanut Grove. He was also in a scene in Joan Crawford's "The Damned Don't Cry." I have seen him countless times and didn't know his name. I kept getting him confused with Robert Gallagher, another actor who played in "The Thrill of It All." Finally, after doing some research and realizing that I have both films in my collection (mentioned above) I dug them out and played them just to see if this was the same actor who played "Rocket Man." It was. I always thought he was a fine actor and I always took notice whenever he appeared on the screen.

I couldn't find any pictures of him online, probably because so many of his film roles were uncredited. There were so many character and bit players in films, it's probably impossible to keep up with them. But Coffin had a long, long career before the movie and TV cameras, there should be lots of pictures of him.

It would be nice if someone had a studio shot of him to include with his write up here at IMDb. It would solve a "mystery" that I'm sure many people have about this interesting-looking actor.

Actor Tris Coffin, producer/actor Russell Hayden and director Oliver Drake had all been making B-westerns for decades by the time they got together and produced this show, and their experience and expertise combined to make this one of the best western series of the '50s, or any other era for that matter (to be perfectly honest, it's much better than many of the films they made before it!). Coffin is perfectly suited for the part of a tough Arizona Ranger captain--he has the look, the attitude and the bearing of an experienced lawman. The stories are uniformly interesting, intelligent and well written, the location work is well utilized and the show doesn't have the cheap, cramped look of other contemporary western series, such as "Annie Oakley" or "Judge Roy Bean," for example, and is not oriented towards kids, as those series were. It's more along the lines of another fine western series of the time, "Boots and Saddles," in that it doesn't have action for action's sake, and what action there is isn't of the cartoonish, Saturday-afternoon-serial type. And to top it off, it tied with another great western series, "Lawman," for the best theme song of any western series--EVER!

If this show happens to get rerun on The Western Channel or some other equally hip cable network, don't miss it.

Based on the true characters of Captain Tom Rynning and Ranger Clint Travis, 26 Men was in the tradition of Death Valley Days providing true stories of the exploits of the Arizona Rangers. Modeled on the Texas Rangers, the Arizona Rangers did a lot in cleaning up the outlaw element in the Territory so that it was disbanded in 1909 and Arizona was admitted to the union as our 48th state in 1912.

Rynning was the second captain of the rangers, the Rangers were founded in 1901 and he took the job in 1903 after the first guy quit. As did many of the Rangers they had the background of being Rough Riders in the Spanish American War and had the backing of the First Rough Rider in the land Theodore Roosevelt. Tris Coffin who had a gazillion player credits on the big and small screen, on stage, and mostly on radio played the no nonsense Captain Rynning.

The stories moved like a western Dragnet, no frills at all, just the facts and the apprehension. No mock heroics either, just professional men doing their jobs.

26 Men was produced by Russell Hayden who had many a western credit to his name before the camera. And I don't think it was a coincidence that the Arizona Rangers were reestablished in 1957 by Governor Ernest W. McFarland of Arizona the same year 26 Men made its debut. Nothing like the value of good publicity.

The Rangers did not have a spotless history though. They were used as strikebreakers by some of the mine owners of Arizona. As such they did have big fans in organized labor.

Still the series is a good one and when TV Guide Channel runs it, catch it if you can.