Ольсен Банден: Датская комедийная серия о банде преступников

Danish comedy film series about a fictional criminal gang

The Olsen Gang (Olsen banden, Olsenbanden, Die Olsenbande) is a Danish comedy film series created by Danish director Erik Balling and special effects expert Henning Bahs about the eponymous fictional criminal gang. The gang's leader is the criminal genius and habitual offender Egon Olsen and his accomplices are Benny and Kjeld (Kjell in Norwegian). The gang members are harmless, extremely rarely target ordinary citizens, and never deliberately use violence. The first film came in 1968; during the next thirty years a total of fourteen films were made. A Norwegian version of the film series was also made (a total of 14 films from 1969 to 1999), in most cases based directly on the scripts for the Danish films. Later, starting in 1981, Sweden also produced their own version: Jönssonligan.

Most of the films start with Egon coming out of jail and being enthusiastically welcomed by Benny and Kjeld. The three men will then have a beer together in the living room of Kjeld's home in Valby, where Egon will inform his friends of his latest plan for making them millionaires. Plans are often two step plans, where the first heist will get the equipment for the real, second plan. The plans usually feature everyday artifacts such as Lego, party balloons, cigarettes, etc., which are then brought together in surprising ways in elaborate and well timed plans, often including clever social engineering. Benny's function in the heists, besides get away driver, is picking locks and starting machinery using "The Thing", a specially shaped brass piece used for manipulating machinery and opening doors. Egon often serves time in prison with lawyers or executives who provide him with the information he needs, such as duty rosters for the national public record office. Egon is also a brilliant safecracker, operating manually, specializing in the fictive "Franz Jäger" brand. Egon's plans often bring the gang into perilously close contact with white collar criminals from the Danish business (and political) elite. For example, in the ninth installment named "Olsen banden deruda" well connected people try to make money out of the so called "butter mountain", a huge amount of butter bought up and stored by the EEC (now the EU) to keep prices up. Egon Olsen learns about this from a lawyer who is serving prison time, and the gang interferes with the plan to secure the millions for themselves, but as always, Egon – after having succeeded with a genius plan – fails for a variety of reasons, for instance underestimating the power and unscrupulousness of these people, bad luck, interference from Kjeld's wife Yvonne, or other surprising elements. For several films, the role of the antagonist was filled by CEO Hallandsen of the fictive, multinational company Hallandsen Inc. or variations thereof. Egon is usually arrested in the end, for various reasons: scapegoat, bad luck, some irrelevant crime, or even turning himself in as a matter of honor. A recurring part of the film is making fun of Danish authorities, especially the police. In some earlier installments, the clumsy Police Inspector Mortensen is used for slapstick comic relief; he is later replaced by Superintendent Jensen, an older, troubled man who has seen better days. He is a resigned character who despises the Danish government as he often criticizes Hallandsen crimes going unnoticed and mentions to his assistant, Inspector Holm: "The only thing the police can do when the real big criminals come by is offer them protection!" Jensen incredulously uses the recurring exclamation "Bagmændene!" (Behind men/Big Fishes) to reference the in joke of powerful players moving outside of the law. In the early installments, profanity and soft erotica (scantily clad women) were more freely used than in later ones, where such content was somewhat watered down to suit younger viewers. Later films focused on the satirical interplay between Jensen and Holm and Egon and his crew, with a frequent outburst of anger from Egon. His long list of slurs is especially famous, like "social democrats! ", "insane woman!" (to Yvonne), "lousy amateurs! ", "cowards! ", "dog heads! ", "porridge peasants! ", "sop! ", "scumbags! ", to name a few.

The Olsen Gang have been made in Norwegian and Swedish (Jönssonligan) versions too. While both remakes follow a generally similar formula to the Danish films, the Swedish version diverges considerably from the Danish original in terms of storylines, character development, and overall quality.

The Norwegian remakes were, with two exceptions, directed by Knut Bohwim based on Balling and Bahs's original scripts with minor adaptations to Norwegian conditions. For example, some names of the main characters were changed: Kjeld became Kjell, Yvonne became Valborg, and Børge became Basse. The character of Benny's brother, Dynamite Harry, was used much more often in the Norwegian films than in the original Danish series, with six appearances.

In the Swedish version, the Egon character is called Charles Ingvar "Sickan" Jönsson, with a slightly different costume and mannerisms, and was a huge success for the actor Gösta Ekman until the actor got tired of the character and left the series. Benny's character was named (Ragnar) Vanheden, a small timer from Stockholm, played by Ulf Brunnberg. Kjeld's character was named Rocky, but appeared only in the first two films. From the second film, the character Dynamit Harry played by Björn Gustafson (who has had rather minor parts in the original Danish films) was featured instead. Although starting out as a strict remake, after a while the franchise started writing their own scripts. The Swedish franchise eventually expanded into films of the band as young kids: Lilla Jönssonligan (little Jönsson band) with four features to date. There was also an attempt to reboot the franchise, featuring brand new actors in the adult roles. Jönssonligan – Den perfekta stöten (2015) was released to middling reviews and poor box office.