Born Devin Borden, he left school at fourteen went through an assortment of jobs, including driving for gangster Frankie Yale and working as a sandhog on the construction of New York City's Holland Tunnel, where he worked with union leader Norman Redwood.
In 1944, Chase signed a contract with RKO to write a screenplay based on his unpublished story That Man Malone at $10,000 a week.
[6] He provided the story and screenplay for MGM's This Man's Navy (1945) starring Wallace Beery, then did another original for Wayne at Republic, Flame of the Barbary Coast (1945).
[7] Chase wrote Tycoon (1947) for Wayne at RKO, based on a novel by C E Scoggins, then provided the story for a Columbia Western, The Man from Colorado (1949).
Chase received great critical acclaim for Red River (1948), where he contributed to the screenplay, based on his novel Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail.
Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Wayne and Montgomery Clift, the film was a huge success and earned Chase an Academy Award nomination as well as a $50,000 fee.
Chase did a south seas adventure tale for Burt Lancaster, His Majesty O'Keefe (1954) which involved him going on location to Fiji.
[13] He returned to Westerns with Rails Into Laramie (1954), with John Payne; The Far Country (1954) for Mann and Stewart; Vera Cruz (1954) for Lancaster and director Robert Aldrich; and Man Without a Star (1955) for King Vidor and Kirk Douglas.
Chase wrote several episodes of Tales of Wells Fargo (1959), Overland Trail (1960), The Detectives (1961), The Tall Man (1961), Whispering Smith (1961), Bonanza (1962), Route 66 (1962) and The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show (1962).
According to Jeanine Basinger, the films that "typify the characters and conflicts associated with Chase's work" were Winchester 73, Bend of the River and The Far Country:First of all, two strong men are involved in an arduous journey across the western terrain, with units of society either contained within the journey itself (as a wagon train) or as various stops along the way (western towns, mining towns, etc.).
Straightforward dialogue, and absence of pretentious philosophizing, and clearly delineated action mark the story progressions, which culminate in unambiguous resolutions.
[14] The Basinger elaborated:The Chase Western story is presented in a physical progression across a larger-than-life landscape, an epic journey west which allows forces of good and evil to interact...
The question is more universal and appropriate to modern life: Will the uncivilized forces within man create a Wild West in perpetuity by winning out over his better instincts?