Olsen Gang: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

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 others members of the gang are Benny and Kjeld. The gang members are very harmless and never uses violence. Most of the movies starts with Egon coming out of jail and the three guys getting a beer, while planning how to become millionaires. Egon are often doing time with for instance lawyers or engineers, who provides him with the informations he needs, for example duty rosters for the national public record office.

The Olsen Gang have been made in Norwegian and Swedish (Jönssonligan) versions too. The original movies were popular in the former DDR and Eastern Europe, because the movies are making fun of authorities, among others the police. Sometimes Egon is arrested, because 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 police can do, when the real big criminals comes by, is offer them protection!"

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 made by Henning Bahs, who also worked as a production designer, and Erik Balling.

Movies

• Olsen Banden (October 11, 1968)
• Olsen Banden på Spanden (October 3, 1969)
• Olsen Banden i Jylland (October 8, 1971)
• Olsen Bandens store Kup (October 6, 1972)
• Olsen Banden går Amok (October 5, 1973)
• Olsen Bandens sidste Bedrifter (October 4, 1974)
• Olsen Banden på Sporet (September 26, 1975)
• Olsen Banden ser Rødt (October 1, 1976)
• Olsen Banden Deruda' (September 30, 1977)
• Olsen Banden går i Krig (October 6, 1978)
• Olsen Banden overgiver sig Aldrig (October 26, 1979)
• Olsen Bandens flugt over Plankeværket (October 16, 1981)
• Olsen Banden over alle Bjerge (December 26, 1981)
• Olsen Bandens 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