Buzz
You're in the middle of a long meeting, filled with nothing but vague remarks and endless small talk, and all you really want is for people to get to the point—or, in other words, to cut to the chase.
Similar to expressions like getting on a soapbox or pushing the envelope, cutting to the chase originally referred to something literal. During the rise of silent films in the early 1900s, filmmakers had to rely on action rather than dialogue to keep audiences engaged. One of the most popular methods involved chase scenes, which were packed with physical humor and movement.
Though chase scenes often involved vehicles, bicycles, or just people running away from danger, they were more inventive and less predictable than one might imagine. Stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton excelled at making these chases both humorous and unexpected. A great example is in the 1922 film Cops, where Keaton ends up balancing on a seesaw ladder above a fence while officers struggle to bring him down from either side.
In Chaplin's 1928 movie The Circus, a police officer chases him directly into the circus ring, where the two race around in circles on a rotating platform, entertaining the audience.
Since moviegoers enjoyed watching a fugitive in pursuit, chase scenes outlived the silent film era. The phrase 'cut to the chase' became a standard piece of advice for filmmakers looking to maintain their movie's pace and energy.
'Whenever they wanted to shake things up, the common advice was ‘cut to the chase,’” wrote reporter Edwin C. Hill in a 1939 article about the increasing popularity of westerns. “There’s always a chase, and it’s a simple trick to return to it when they need to build up suspense.” Screenwriter Helen Deutsch, who wrote famous films like The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) and Valley of the Dolls (1967), even had a sign in her MGM office that said, “When in doubt, cut to the chase.”
By the mid-20th century, 'cut to the chase' had already begun to evolve into its modern figurative sense. In his 1955 memoir Cross My Heart, Variety journalist Frank Scully described using the phrase while teaching his Norwegian assistant English. “Instead of going all the way back to Chaucer, I ‘cut to the chase’ and taught her with copies of Variety,” he wrote.
Though 'cut to the chase' is mostly used figuratively today, actual chase scenes are still alive and well—and with the enduring success of the Fast & Furious films, they are likely to remain a staple for years to come.
