Its plot follows a career criminal who becomes involved in a jewel heist in a resort town in California's Sierra Nevada, along with a young former taxi dancer (Lupino).

The screenplay was co-written by John Huston, Bogart's friend and drinking partner, adapted from the novel by William R. Burnett (also known for, among others, the novel Little Caesar and the script for Scarface).

The film's success also led to a breakthrough for Huston, providing him with the leverage he needed to make the transition from screenwriter to director, which he made later that year with his adaptation of The Maltese Falcon (1941), starring Bogart.

The film contains extensive location shooting, especially in the climactic final scenes, as the authorities pursue Bogart's character, gangster Roy Earle, from Lone Pine to the foot of the mountains.

He wants the heist led by convicted bank robber Roy Earle, whose recent release from an Indiana prison was engineered by Big Mac's bribing the governor.

Deriding Marie's involvement, Roy at first insists she return to Los Angeles, but after some discussion he agrees to let her stay.

In Tropico Springs, Roy witnesses a minor car accident involving Ma and Pa Goodhue and their granddaughter Velma, a young woman with a clubfoot who walks with a limp.

While she is recovering, Roy asks Velma to marry him, but she refuses, explaining that she is devoted to her fiancé back East.

Roy and Marie drive to Los Angeles with the jewels, only to find that Big Mac has died of a heart attack and that Jake Kranmer, an ex-policeman, has taken over the operation.

When his car runs low on gas, Roy risks a small town stickup and is immediately recognized.

Here, the Old West has been replaced by health spas and diets and a clean-living California; not coincidentally, a land that flourished in tandem with the aspirational illusion of Hollywood.

Ida Lupino had received good publicity in connection with her performance in They Drive by Night, and this caused producer Mark Hellinger to suggest to executive producer Hal Wallis that Lupino be billed over Bogart, who to that point had only starred in "B" movies; in later releases of the film, Bogart got top billing.

[9][10] Pard, the dog of Bogart's character, was erroneously believed by some to be canine actor Terry (Toto from The Wizard of Oz).

The reviewer noted, "What makes High Sierra something more than a Grade B melodrama is its sensitive delineation of gangster Earle's character.

He is kind to the mongrel dog (Zero) that travels with him, befriends a taxi dancer (Ida Lupino) who becomes his moll, and goes out of his way to help a crippled girl (Joan Leslie).