Cinema
Olsenbanden - Operasjon Egon
Knut Bohwim · 1969
Synopsis
Egon Olsen, head of a trio of small-time criminals in Oslo, wants to lift the gang out of petty thefts with one big job: stealing a gold figurine worth several million kroner, which once belonged to a German emperor and is on display in a museum in the city. Inspector Hermansen is due to stand guard there, as it happens. Egon settles his plan: with Benny and Kjell, and the help of a certain Basse, the gang will pass beneath the museum through a shaft they will blow up, while Egon's girlfriend draws the inspector away.
Context
The film is the Norwegian version of a Danish comedy of 1968, shot from the screenplay by Erik Balling and Henning Bahs, whose rights the director had acquired from Nordisk Film. It was released in Oslo on 11 August 1969 under the sole title Olsenbanden, the subtitle coming later. The role of Egon was to have gone to Carsten Byhring; Arve Opsahl persuaded him to swap it for his own and played it in the fourteen films. The press panned it, the public followed it.
Who it is for
Eighty-two minutes, in colour and in Norwegian: a burglary comedy for the whole family, the first title in a long series.
Prizes and reception
Savaged by the press on its release, it was followed by the public and opened the most profitable series in Norwegian cinema.