DC

DC — short simply for 'Darn Cat' — is the feline star of Walt Disney's 1965 comedy That Darn Cat!, based on the novel Undercover Cat. A confident, free-roaming Siamese, DC prowls his suburban neighbourhood each night, and on one such outing crosses paths with a kidnapped bank teller who manages to slip her wristwatch onto him as a plea for help. When his owner spots the watch, the FBI is drawn in, and the reluctant agent assigned to 'tail' the cat finds that following an independent-minded Siamese around town is easier said than done.

The film leans entirely on DC's unbothered, do-as-he-pleases nature: the comedy comes from a whole team of federal agents being led a merry dance by an animal with no interest whatsoever in solving crimes and every interest in his own nightly business. The Siamese breed, with its vocal, aloof reputation, was perfectly cast.

That Darn Cat! was a popular success and Disney remade it in 1997, keeping DC at the centre of the story. The character remains a fond example of the mid-century Hollywood 'clever pet' comedy — though the joke, very deliberately, is that DC is not clever so much as gloriously indifferent, stumbling into heroism purely by going about a cat's ordinary night.