Olsen gangs

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Movie
German title The Olsen Gang: Operation Egon (title on festival)
Original title Olsen gangs
Country of production Norway
original language Norwegian
Publishing year 1969
length 82 minutes
Rod
Director Knut Bohwim
script Henning Bahs
Erik Balling
Norwegian adaptation: Knut Bohwim
production Knut Bohwim
music Egil Monn-Iversen
camera Mattis Mathiesen
cut Leif Erlsboe
occupation

Olsen Gang (also Olsen Gang - Operasjon Egon , German festival title: The Olsen Gang: Operation Egon ) is the first film from the Olsen Gang film series (Norway) . The Norwegian comedy thriller by Knut Bohwim is a remake of the Danish film The Olsen Gang from the film series with the Olsen Gang and had in Norway premiered on August 11, 1969 in theaters Saga and Soria Moria in Oslo.

action

In this film, Egon Olsen has to drive into Botsfengselet state prison in Oslo twice . In the sequels of the Norwegian Olsen Gang films, too, the prison repeatedly becomes his home.
In Kampen near Oslo at Normannsgate 44 (the yellow house in the background) is the Cafe Lefsa in the film , Hansen's pub with an attached brothel and a meeting place for the Olsen gang
In this film, the Oslo Stock Exchange served as the supposed art museum from whose “German Art Exhibition” the Olsen Gang stole the Kaiseraufsatz.

Egon Olsen has served several times in the Oslo state prison, the Botsfengselet , for minor offenses . He has a plan for a new coup that he - together with Benny and Kjell as the "Olsen Gang" - wants to carry out. This time the Olsen gang is supposed to break into a tobacco shop in Oslo's old town. At first everything seems to be very simple, until an accident breaks the shop window and the alarm system is triggered. Benny and Kjell immediately flee, while Egon tries to stroll on the sidewalk inconspicuously as a harmless stroller. When the police arrive, he is arrested and returned to prison.

After the last failed break-in, gang leader Egon returns from his jail stay after a while and is picked up from prison by Benny and Kjell. Then the Olsen gang drives to their usual meeting place, the Cafe Lefsa in the Kampen district of Oslo , the bar run by the host Hansen and the connected brothel of the prostitute Conny. There Egon, Benny and Kjell discuss their new plan: On the occasion of a Bavarian culture week, a valuable exhibit, the so-called Kaiseraufsatz of the last German emperor , owned by the Hohenzollern family will be shown in the Oslo Art Museum ; the gang wants to steal this essay. The expected windfall comes in handy for the gang, as Kjell has to take care of his family of five while Benny is engaged to the nude model Ulla.

The gang is now busy preparing for the robbery, although Hermansen is very diligent in guarding the Kaiseraufsatz (although he often gets in his own way) and the museum is equipped with the most modern security devices. The whole Olsen gang and Kjell's son Basse are involved in the theft, who triggers the alarm so that the showpiece disappears into the underground shelter, where the gang then fetches it. The puff mother of the Cafe Lefsa establishment comes to the rescue with her emergency vehicle marked Dag og Natt (day and night). She distracts Hermansen from the detonation by means of a fabricated misfire of her vehicle. After all, everything goes according to plan and the theft succeeds. But Benny loses a photo of his girlfriend, the nude model Ulla, through a mishap during his escape in the underground museum shelter, which is how Hermansen later finds out about the Olsen gang.

After the successful robbery, the gang makes their way in Benny's car to Oslo Airport, where Valborg with the children and Ulla are already waiting. Everyone wants to travel to Mallorca together to disguise the gang's escape as a vacation trip. On the way, however, the car suddenly breaks down due to a lack of fuel. At a subsequent police check, however, Benny's vehicle is towed away by the police due to serious technical defects - together with the imperial essay hidden in it.

At night, however, Egon, Benny and Kjell manage to retrieve the Kaiser Essence from the police car park. They hide him in the pram of Kjell's youngest child - which turns out to be problematic as Valborg leaves for her mother after an argument with her husband, taking the children and their pram with them. The Olsen Gang set out to stop them. Hermansen follows her after finding a photo of Benny and Ulla that the Olsen gang had lost during the robbery in the museum. A chaotic chase through rural Norway ensues, in which the gang has to change modes of transport several times (including twice due to a lack of petrol), stealing a different vehicle each time. The ladies of the Cafe Lefsa establishment also have to help the Olsen gang out of a jam with their emergency vehicle. They distract the chasing police and at the same time make their car available to the Olsen gang to escape. Detective Inspector Hermansen does not give up, he remains stubbornly on the heels of the Olsen gang. The crooks can trick him several times on their escape. During the further escape with a subsequent adventurous train journey, they finally put Hermansen's police VW Beetle out of action with a suspended wagon . The gang steals a truck, which Hermansen also pursues. After they have taken Hermansen down again, the Olsen gang discovers that their stroller with the alleged showpiece is empty. The Olsen gang is desperate and Benny and Kjell give up because of the messy situation. A little later they are picked up by their partners on the way and return home. The riddle is cleared up: Kjell's eldest son Birger, who doesn't believe in crime, has taken the imperial essay, gives it to the police and receives a small finder's fee. Egon Olsen now drives on to a ferry alone with the stolen truck.

Because of his failures and his strange-sounding adventures, Hermansen falls into disrepute with his boss. The police chief has him arrested at a small police station by a village policeman. While Hermansen is there alone, an attentive citizen calls because someone named Olsen wants to sell him a truck that has probably been stolen in order to get the money for a ferry crossing. The disgraced police officer breaks out of the police station and steals the car of his police chief in order to pursue Egon further. Hermansen is now being followed again by the village policeman, cannot stop his car at the ferry pier and drives into the water at full speed. Egon is arrested again, however, and Hermansen is demoted to a simple patrol duty.

When Egon is released from prison, Benny and Kjell pick him up from prison with their new children. When they later try their hand at illegal banana street vendors in Oslo city center , they are surprised by their special friend and current street policeman, Hermansen. The Olsen gang managed to escape in time with their banana handcart, while Hermansen slipped on a banana peel.

History of origin

The first Olsen Gang film, The Olsen Gang, was shot in Denmark before it was later remade in Norway. After the success of the remake there, the entire film series was later adapted. The original idea of ​​making a comedy about the everyday life of a gang of crooks, whose everyday life should look just like that of any other person and who carry out their criminal activities like a normal job, first came from Denmark, which the Danish screenwriter Henning Bahs said about several Years busy. After he had shot several films with Morten Grunwald , Ove Sprogøe and Poul Bundgaard together with Erik Balling , such as 1965 caliber 7.65 - Thieves Greetings from Copenhagen ( Sla først, Frede ); In 1966 Slap af, Frede and in 1967 Martha , they finally wrote the script for The Olsen Gang . The name of the main character "Egon Olsen" was an idea of ​​Bahs' son, the similarity to Ole Olsen , the founder of Nordisk Film A / S , is coincidental. The working title for the film was Perlemorderne . According to the Norwegian screenwriter and director Knut Bohwim, the first Danish film "The Olsen Gang" could not have achieved success in Norway because of e.g. B. the frequent use of national symbols such as the Dannebrog and the strong reference to Copenhagen and Denmark. Bohwim then decided to remake these films with popular Norwegian actors through his film company Teamfilm AS, which he co-founded in 1964 . He adapted the templates so well to the national circumstances that the remakes were received with great enthusiasm in Norway and thus became Bohwim's greatest success. Role names, locations and national symbols were "Norwegianized" and the location moved from Copenhagen to Oslo.

meaning

The first film by the Norwegian Olsen Gang also differs in part significantly from its successors. Not only that Kjell has three children in this film, but also the gang's regular visits to brothels and the fact that Kjell and Valborg still lived in the same milieu in Oslo's old town gives this film a different flair than the following.

Reviews

“Successful farce - pure pleasure, from start to finish. Once again the staff of Teamfilm A / S proved that they know how to make farces. The company's latest production this time is based on an 'imported' script - which the Danes had in front of the camera a year ago. [...] The direction shows a feeling for speed and rhythm. […] The biggest hit, from a cinematic point of view, is the opening scene - a delicious sound 'gag' that is excellently executed by the three main actors. "

- Finn Syversen in Aftenposten

Remarks

  • The film Olsen-Gangs and the first from the Norwegian Olsen-Gangs film series is the only one from the entire Olsen-Gangs universe that does not use the score and the famous Olsen theme song by Bent Fabricius-Bjerre . The music for this film was created by the Norwegian composer and musician Egil Monn-Iversen . In all later Norwegian Olsen Gang films, including the much later Norwegian Olsen Gang Junior , only the film music by Bent Fabricius-Bjerre was used again.
  • The first Norwegian Olsen Gang film is also the only one that largely corresponds to the Danish original in terms of plot and dialogues. The second Norwegian Olsen film, which was shot again relatively unchanged, has already been given a new title: the original Olsen-banden på spanden became Olsenbanden og Dynamitt-Harry , with the inclusion of Dynamit-Harry, the one in the Norwegian Remakes occurs much more often. In the following episodes, an increasing independence can be seen with corresponding differences to the original in plot and dialogues, which finally turned into a separate Norwegian Olsen Gang film in 1984 ... but the Olsen Gang wasn't dead! based on a script by Knut Bohwim and Gustav Kramer .
  • Under the title Die Olsenbande: Operation , the film was presented at the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck in 1997 and has since been released on VHS , DVD and Blu-Ray . A German-language dubbed version does not yet exist.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hauke ​​Lange-Fuchs : “I have a plan!” , Page 130; Lübeck 1997, ISBN 3924214484
  2. ↑ Frank Eberlein: The large lexicon of the Olsen gang , p. 287
  3. ↑ Frank Eberlein: The large lexicon of the Olsen gang , p. 312
  4. ↑ Frank Eberlein : The large lexicon of the Olsen gang . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-361-6 .
    Hauke ​​Lange-Fuchs : “I have a plan!” Lübeck 1997, ISBN 3924214484 .
  5. ^ In: Aftenposten , Oslo, August 1969; German translation from: Hauke ​​Lange-Fuchs: “I have a plan!” Lübeck 1997, ISBN 3924214484 , p. 115.
  6. ↑ Hauke ​​Lange-Fuchs : “I have a plan!” , Pages 108–112; Lübeck 1997, ISBN 3924214484
  7. ↑ Hauke ​​Lange-Fuchs : “I have a plan!”. Lübeck 1997, ISBN 3924214484 ; Pp. 8-9