The Olsen Gang

The Olsen Gang is the first film in a long-running Danish comedy series about a small-time criminal trio. Egon Olsen leads the gang, with his friends Benny and Kjeld making up the rest, and he has ambitions for them to become the best-known thieves in Denmark and eventually in Europe. His plan centres on a valuable Bavarian art treasure on display at a Copenhagen museum during a Bavarian exhibition, and he intends to reach it from below, using tunnels and an underground explosion. The problem is that the exhibit is closely guarded, and the overzealous policeman Mortensen is watching over it with particular attention. Benny and Kjeld are not the most capable accomplices, and trouble follows even when Egon's scheme works out.

Erik Balling directed, working from a screenplay he wrote with Henning Bahs. The cast includes Ove Sprogøe as Egon, Morten Grunwald as Benny and Poul Bundgaard as Kjeld, with Peter Steen, Poul Reichhardt and Kirsten Walther among the 36 credited performers. Bo Christensen produced the 80-minute film, which was made in Denmark by Nordisk Film Denmark and Icestorm Entertainment GmbH. It was released in October 1968. Among Balling's films it comes before The Olsen Gang Sees Red (1976). On IMDb it holds 6.6/10 from around 2,800 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7/10 from a much smaller base of 64 votes.