Why Do We Say 'Cut to the Chase'?

• The phrase originates from the silent films era when normal dialogue wasn’t engaging enough to the viewer.
• Physical comedy, popularized in the 1920s by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, relied heavily on action sequences that involved a chase, to keep the viewers hooked on without sound.

Moviemakers were advised to ‘cut to the chase’ or move faster towards an action sequence to keep their audiences engaged.

This carried on in the screenplays of the 60s, and though the phrase is figuratively used nowadays (We say ‘cut to the chase’ to someone when we want to tell them to get to the point), newer movie franchises like Fast And The Furious remind us that viewer patience is still short.