The infamous "Il Gatto"

Armando Botto armando.botto at libero.it
Sat Aug 7 14:10:43 CEST 2004


It seems this message never reached DCML, so I'm writing it again...
apologies, should you receive it twice!

Lars Jensen wrote:
> [Il Gatto] seems like a standard "journalist with no morals" to me. Is it
just a coincidence that he hasn't been used much the last many decades?
[...] I was genuinely curious why this very early Italian character (debuted
1938) isn't used in Italy these days, when other obscurities such as Gedeone
(1956) and Sgrizzo (1964) have been revived within the last few years.

Sorry I couldn't answer before, but better late than never ;-)

Il Gatto (BTW, "The Cat" is just a pseudonym, his real name being Bartolomeo
Circonlocuzioni) was used by Federico Pedrocchi in three pre-WWII stories as
a *generic* villain.

In "Paperino inviato speciale" he is indeed a "journalist with no morals";
however, in the subsequent "Paperino fra i Pellirosse", he plays the part of
a tax collector, while his final appearance in "Paperino chiromante" casts
him in a minor role as an ally of Pete and Squinch against Donald, and his
job is not even mentioned, being immaterial to the story plot.

Maybe, had Pedrocchi survived the war, he would have re-used and better
shaped the character he created; unfortunately, it was not so, and probably
later scriptwriters (assuming they were aware of "Il Gatto"'s existence at
all) found it difficult to employ the character, indeed because of its lack
of definition.

Ciao,
Armando









More information about the DCML mailing list