[2] His first employment in films was in the prop department at Paramount Studios, where he began writing screenplays.
[citation needed] Starting with The Town Went Wild (1944), Rouse co-wrote many stories and scripts with Clarence Greene.
This collaboration continued through the noir series (The Thief (1952), Wicked Woman (1953), New York Confidential (1955), and House of Numbers (1957)).
In the late 1950s, Greene and Rouse formed Greene-Rouse Productions, which created the television series Tightrope that ran for one season (1959–1960) as well as two films in the 1960s.
In addition to their noir work, Rouse and Greene produced two westerns: The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) and Thunder in the Sun (1959).
[10] After his death, his wife Beverly Michaels Rouse said: "He worked everything from film props to junior writer to the technical crew.