General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Olsen Gang in a Fix

Olsen Gang in a Fix (Danish: Olsen-banden på spanden) is a 1969 Danish comedy-crime film, the second entry in the Olsen Gang series about the small-time criminals Egon Olsen, Benny Frandsen, and Kjeld Jensen. Directed by Erik Balling from a script by Balling and Henning Bahs and produced by Nordisk Film, it premiered on 3 October 1969 at the Palads cinema in Copenhagen¹. In the film, Egon leaves prison intending to go straight with the help of a social worker, but the gang is wrongly suspected of a theft of the crown jewels from the Danish National Bank carried out by American gangsters, and sets out to recover the loot themselves².

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	3 October 1969, Palads, Copenhagen¹
Position in series	Second of the Olsen Gang films, following Olsen-banden (1968)³
Director and writers	Erik Balling; script by Erik Balling and Henning Bahs¹
Production	Nordisk Film A/S; color; Danish-language¹
Runtime	107 minutes per the Danish film databases; other listings give 104, 101, or 111 minutes³^•⁴
Lead cast	Ove Sprogøe (Egon), Morten Grunwald (Benny), Poul Bundgaard (Kjeld), Ghita Nørby (Bodil Hansen), Preben Kaas (Dynamit-Harry)³
Award	Bodil Award for Best Male Supporting Role to Preben Kaas, 1970³
Music	Bent Fabricius-Bjerre, including "Lykken er ikke gods eller guld" sung by Poul Bundgaard¹

Spoilers

Plot

The film opens with Egon Olsen's failed attempt at a bank robbery, in which another robber has beaten him to it; he returns to prison³. On his release he meets the social worker Bodil Hansen, who has written a thesis about him, and he resolves to become a law-abiding citizen¹. Bodil finds him a job at a toy factory, where Benny and Kjeld are also hired; all three are fired after Egon, distracted by Bodil, loses concentration at work, and the three drown their sorrows at a pub⁵.

The gang then takes work as cleaners in the National Bank. During the cleaning shift a break-in occurs: the American gangster Serafimo Mozzarella and his men steal the Danish crown jewels, transporting them out of the airport in cello cases⁵. The gang is held by a bank guard who assumes they committed the robbery, escapes through a back door, and, determined to clear their names, steals the loot back from the real thieves after spotting the cases on the airport baggage belt⁵.

When Egon tries to hand the jewels over, the police chief insists that no robbery took place and sends the detective Mortensen to arrest the gang for stealing them⁵. Bodil, who has received a research grant, visits Serafimo at his hotel to establish whether the three are innocent; the two get along and she leaves for the United States with him⁵. Unable to open the cello cases themselves, the gang brings in Benny's brother, the alcoholic explosives expert Dynamit-Harry, who instead blows up a car and a shed; Egon's furious scolding drives Harry off⁵. The film ends with Mortensen arresting Egon for car theft, explosives offenses, and other charges, but not for the jewel theft⁵.

Cast and production

The three leads were played, as throughout the series, by Ove Sprogøe as Egon Olsen, Morten Grunwald as Benny Frandsen, and Poul Bundgaard as Kjeld Jensen, with Kirsten Walther as Kjeld's wife Yvonne³. Ghita Nørby played the social worker Bodil Hansen, Peter Steen played the detective Mortensen, and Poul Reichhardt played the police chief³. The American gangster Serafimo Mozzarella was played by the American actor Harold J. Stone⁶.

Dynamit-Harry's debut. This film is the first in which Preben Kaas appears as Dynamit-Harry, the drunken demolition expert who became one of the series' recurring characters⁷. Kaas received the 1970 Bodil Award for Best Male Supporting Role for the part, and the character returned in Olsen-banden går amok (1973)³^•⁸.

Filming locations included Kastrup Airport, Langebro, the Copenhagen Police Headquarters (Politigården), and Vridsløselille State Prison in Albertslund, along with Copenhagen streets³^•⁵. Jørgen Skov was the cinematographer, Henning Bahs designed the sets, and Aage Lundvald drew the poster¹.

The botched opening robbery is generally read as a wry allusion to the contemporary Danish film Tænk på et tal: its creators, the author Anders Bodelsen and the director Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt, both appear as bank employees, and Paul Hüttel plays the robber in both films, demanding the cashier's blue lunch box at gunpoint, a direct nod to the earlier film's plot³.

Place in the series and reception

The film belongs to the series of fourteen Olsen Gang comedies made between 1968 and 1981, with a final sequel in 1998, created by Erik Balling and Henning Bahs⁹. Compared with the first film, the gang plays more cohesively as a team, but the story is unlike both its predecessor and all twelve later entries in the series¹⁰. Its plot leans toward a Hollywood-style gangster story, and the film shows Egon, unusually for the series, falling in love with his social worker¹¹.

Retrospective rankings have treated it as one of the weaker entries: a 2022 ranking by the Danish cinema chain Kino placed it 12th of the 14 theatrical films, judging the mafia plot too thin for the series' usual formula while praising the toy-factory scenes and Kaas's Dynamit-Harry¹¹. Contemporary Danish critics reviewed it at release in October 1969 in outlets including Politiken, Berlingske Tidende, Aktuelt, and Information¹.

The film has remained in circulation. It was released on DVD on 13 August 2003, streams on Nordisk Film+, and has been shown repeatedly on Danish television, most recently on TV2 Charlie in December 2025¹^•¹². In German-speaking markets it was distributed as Die Olsenbande in der Klemme⁴.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026