Contraband on AllMovie

Lois Wilson stars in this drama, which was based on the novel by Clarence Buddington Kelland. Schoolteacher Carmel Lee (Wilson) inherits a run-down country newspaper from her uncle. With the help of eccentric Professor Pell (Raymond McKee) and Jed Tubal, an old printer (Luke Cosgrave), she starts bringing it back to life. When she decides to rid the town of a gang of bootleggers, she runs into trouble. The reformers are on her side but the bad guys are determined to stop them. Sheriff Churchill (Charles Ogle) has disappeared and she suspects foul play. Pell proves that the sheriff has been murdered, and that Abner Fownes (Edwards Davis) is the leader of the bootleggers. Deputy Sheriff Jenney (a well-cast Noah Beery) is Fownes' equally villainous assistant. Carmel gathers up the reformers of the town and leads them to the bootleggers' lair. Their game is uncovered and they're run out of town.