Olsen Gang
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The Olsen Gang (Danish: Olsenbanden. German: Die Olsenbande ) is a fictional Danish gang in the movies of the same name. The gang's leader is the criminal genius and habitual offender Egon Olsen. The other members of the gang are Benny and Kjeld. The gang members are harmless and never use violence. Most of the movies start with Egon coming out of jail and the three guys getting a beer, while planning how to become millionaires. This could be planning to elude an alarm system to get some crown jewels that happen to be in town on show for the moment. Egon is often spending time with lawyers or engineers, who provides him with the information he needs, for example duty rosters for the national public record office. In the early episodes, harsh language and soft-erotica (temptingly dressed women) were more freely used than in later versions which were censored to suit youngsters.
The Olsen Gang have been made in Norwegian and Swedish (Jönssonligan) versions too. The original movies were popular in the former GDR and Eastern Europe, because the movies made fun of authorities, among others the police. Sometimes Egon is arrested, because the police cannot get to the "big fishes", so they have to find a scapegoat. Superintendent Jensen tells his younger colleague, inspector Holm: "The only thing the police can do, when the real big criminals come by, is offer them protection!". The Norwegian versions of the movies also has another character, 'Dynamite Harry', as the little brother of Benny Frandsen -- he's the demolition expert (although his nerves are very easily shaken up due to years of having dealt with explosives but he's a good-hearted man though also a bit cowardly). Harry made an appearance in six Norwegian films, played by Harald Heide-Steen jr. He also appeared in two early Danish Olsen Gang movies, then played by Preben Kaas.
The first 13 movies were directed by Erik Balling, while Tom Hedegaard and Morten Arnfred directed the fourteenth and final Olsen Gang movie. The scripts were written by Henning Bahs, who also worked as a production designer, and Erik Balling.
Movies
- Olsenbanden (October 11, 1968)
- Olsenbanden på Spanden (October 3, 1969)
- Olsenbanden i Jylland (October 8, 1971)
- Olsenbandens store Kup (October 6, 1972)
- Olsenbanden går Amok (October 5, 1973)
- Olsenbandens sidste Bedrifter (October 4, 1974)
- Olsenbanden på Sporet (September 26, 1975)
- Olsenbanden ser Rødt (October 1, 1976)
- Olsenbanden Deruda' (September 30, 1977)
- Olsenbanden går i Krig (October 6, 1978)
- Olsenbanden overgiver sig Aldrig (October 26, 1979)
- Olsenbandens flugt over Plankeværket (October 16, 1981)
- Olsenbanden over alle Bjerge (December 26, 1981)
- Olsenbandens sidste Stik (December 18, 1998)
Cast
- Ove Sprogøe as Egon Olsen
- Morten Grunwald as Benny Frandsen
- Poul Bundgaard as Kjeld Jensen
- Kirsten Walther as Yvonne Jensen
- Jes Holtsø as Børge Jensen
- Axel Strøbye as Superintendent of police Jensen
- Ole Ernst as Police inspector Holm
- Ove Verner Hansen as Bøffen
External links
- Olsenbandenfanclub Deutschland (http://www.olsenbande.com/) (Olsen Gang Fan Club Germany)
- German Olsen Gang Fansite (http://www.olsen-bande.com/)
- IMDB on the original Danish movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063386/)
da:Olsenbanden
de:Olsenbande
pl:Gang Olsena (film)
no:Olsenbanden
sv:Jönssonligan