Allan Olsen Movies

Charlotte Sachs-Bostrup directed this family-oriented mystery that attained enormous popularity in its native Denmark, especially among young audiences. At the time of its release, it represented one of several Western European efforts about teen and pre-teen characters playing amateur sleuth. Elena Arndt-Jensen and Nanna Finding Koppel star, respectively, as Karla and Katrine, two girls caught up in the tumult of early adolescence. Karla, hoping that she and Katrine might forge a closer friendship, invites Katrine to spend the holidays with her. Katrine obliges, but nothing quite turns out as they expect. Karla soon falls in love for the first time, with Jonas (Joshua Marc Berman) a young boy close to her age. This is all well and good, of course, but Karla becomes so wrapped up in the new romance that she neglects her friendship with Katrine. These concerns take a back seat, however (and the girls must set aside their conflicts) when a gang of local thieves begins to strike repeatedly, and Jonas and the girls team up to solve the mystery. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This comedy has nothing whatever to do with the classical-era story of an insatiable ladies'man. Instead, the story concerns a diamond named Casanova which was hidden inside a wine bottle inside (of all things) a woman's make-up kit. When two young folks steal the kit, they are followed by a menagerie of strange characters, all of whom are after the diamond. They include one of the kids' uncles, an Arab sheik and an organized crime figure. Just when any of the contenders is convinced that he is home free, something happens to deprive him of the prize. The story is based on a novel by bestselling Danish author Bjarne Reuter ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A sort of Danish Valley Girls, Ballerup Boulevard features a lonely suburban teenager (Stine Bierlich), whose father is losing his trucking business while the mother is carted off to jail on a charge of "creative bookkeeping." A moralistic tale of keeping up appearances in order to fit in, the film's main attraction is its setting: the cold uniformity of a suburban wasteland. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Bohemians Arnold (Erik Clausen) and Benny (Kim Larsen), unemployed plumbers who earn their livelihood moonlighting, create their own little anarchic world in an abandoned factory. This gentle satire owed its fleeting popularity to its stars, cavern-mouthed pop star Larsen and comedian Clausen, the latter especially known for his satirical comments on the Danish establishment in particular and bureaucracy in general. A throwback to the wild and woolly 1968 Summer of Love, Midt om Natten was slightly anachronistic already when it premiered. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Tired of being left alone by her children who are too caught up in their own lives to pay her much attention, Mrs. Maage (Tove Maes) decides to perk up her isolated existence by offering a 100,000-kroner award (money she does not have) for Felix, her lost Persian cat (she has never owned a cat). The response is truly beyond her wildest dreams -- but at the same time, her son knows all this is a great fraud and instead of seeing her act for what it really was, he is convinced his mother has to be institutionalized. Mrs. Maage is not sure how to get out of that predicament when another senior comes to her rescue, a sleuth in true Hollywood style by the name of Hovard Hansen (Poul Bundgaard, of the Olsen gang movies). Between his trench coat and his Bogart impersonation, he has enough inspiration left over to find the missing Persian cat. The cat, however, is missing from its owner, Dennis the Gangster (Leif Sylvester Petersen) who may not take too kindly to a forced adoption out of his family. Given the activity she has generated by her ad, Mrs. Maage may soon be wishing for a little of the peaceful isolation of her pre-Felix days. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

One of the most successful Danish films of the '70s was Mig og Charly (1978), a charming story of friendship between teenagers from different worlds. Charly og Steffen again stars Allan Olsen as the typically bold Copenhagen working-class boy and Kim Jensen as the suburban Steffen. This time the two get in trouble with a gang of Hell's Angels, but some of the potency of the original seems to have been lost with the change of directors (Morten Arnfred helmed Mig og Charly, while his assistant, Henning Kristiansen, directed the more commonplace sequel). The two films made a star of the pixyish Olsen, arguably the only newcomer to enjoy such widespread public acceptance in the 1970s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Steffen is a good kid, a teenager who has recently finished school and is looking for work. He lives with his widowed mother, a newspaper reporter. Very little throws him off his stride, whether it is his girlfriend's jealousy of his friendship with Charly, a reform-school boy, or his mother's drunken, playful amorousness one night, because he reminds her of his father. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide