The alt.usage.english FAQ   

• "cut to the chase"

  (Phrase Origins)
  
  On its AOL message board, Merriam-Webster Editorial Department wrote: "The phrase 'cut to the chase' developed from cinema terminology, where it referred to the act of switching from a less action-packed scene to a more exciting sequence -- typically a chase scene -- in order to draw the audience's attention back to the screen. Within the past fifteen years or so, 'cut to the chase' has come to be used outside of the film industry with the figurative meaning of 'get to the point.'"
  
  Jesse Sheidlower adds: "The literal use -- as a director's instruction to go to a chase scene -- is quite old. A 1929 novel about Hollywood has 'Jannings escapes....Cut to chase', for example. The figurative use, which is now quite common, is fairly recent; it seems to date only from the early 1980s."
  
  Source: [Mark Israel, 'Phrase Origins: "cut to the chase"', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 4641), (29 Sept 1997)]
  
  
  
  

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