'Vault' resurrects 1970s Mafia lore, famous heist

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island is filled with all sorts of crazy stories, but few top what went down at Hudson Fur Storage at 101 Cranston St. in Providence’s West Side on the morning of Aug. 14, 1975.

A group of eight armed men, including Robert "The Deuce" Dussault, showed up with one goal in mind: to rob the vault located within that served as the unofficial “bank” of the Mafia. The heist amounted to $34 million — to this day, one of the largest ever.

The story sparked the creative juices of Chad Verdi, of the East Greenwich-based film production company Verdi Productions, and film director Tom Denucci to create a film. The result, "Vault," opens in Rhode Island on Friday. There will be an invitation-only screening Thursday night at the Showcase Cinemas in Warwick.

“I was in the middle of developing 'Bleed For This,' the movie I put out about Vinny Paz in 2016, and what I like doing is making films that are based on true stories," Verdi says, discussing how the idea of a movie about the Bonded Vault heist came about.

“When the topic came up, it was really about making a story on Raymond Patriarca and the Mafia. With Rhode Island being the smallest state in the union while also having such strong Italian ties to the Mafia, I thought that it would be great to make a movie about Raymond’s life. We were in the middle of that and we were going to call it ‘Senior,’ and then Tom Denucci with his research found that this heist took place in the '70s, one of the largest in history, and I had no idea about it. When I read about it, I decided to go this way with the film. This was around eight years ago.”

Actor Theo Rossi, whom folks might know as Juan Carlos "Juice" Ortiz from the FX series "Sons Of Anarchy," plays Dussault in the film. Like Verdi, Rossi is a fan of films based on true stories. That’s what hooked him to the script.

"Chad brought me the script to 'Vault,'" says Rossi, who grew up in New York City. "I read it, and I’m a sucker for true stories. Anything that involves real events I’m a complete nerd for. After I read it I was like, 'Wow, I didn’t know this.' What threw me off the most was that I had a lot of friends that went to school in Providence, and I don't know what it is, but when I heard that one of the largest mafias was operating in this small city it just blew me away."

"What really got me was when I was doing research on the story,” Rossi continues. “I heard some guys say they used to tell it to their kids as like a fairy tale. That’s when I knew that I had to do this film. I’ve been on some huge-budget films and because of the people behind it and more importantly because of the town — as someone who grew up in Staten Island, where I made my first movie — I know that if the town supports you, then you got it. Providence was just so behind us in every way, everyone was just so amazing. We had the Superman Building, we had the streets and we were able to recreate that time period.”

"The Superman Building is where we filmed roughly 50% of ‘Vault,’” Verdi explains. “Without the building, I probably would have pulled this movie and went into one of my next projects. Ninety percent of the film was filmed in Rhode Island ... if the Superman Building wasn’t involved, we wouldn’t have been able to replicate that era of the '70s in a quality way. It would have cost millions of dollars to replace that, so having that location was key. I was only going to make this film if it was made in Rhode Island, and it wouldn’t have happened anywhere else.”

Denucci, a Cranston native, has an appreciation of filmmaking from the 1970s, and he concentrated on trying to capture the vibe of the decade with "Vault."

"I wanted to hark back to a lot of traditional '70s films, ones that were shot during the era the film takes place in," Denucci says. “I wanted to shoot very cohesively so at times with it being a period piece every facet of the film would resonate the essence of the '70s and be a love letter to that era. I wanted to create the illusion that we were really in that time.”

"Vault" also stars Clive Standen as Charles "Chucky" Flynn, Samira Wiley as Dussault's companion Karyne Sponheim, Chazz Palminteri as Patriarca, and Don Johnson as Gerard Ouimette.

Verdi — who is listed as an executive producer on the coming Martin Scorsese film "The Irishman" — says "Vault" is one of the best films he's helped make.

"I think ‘Vault’ could likely put Rhode Island on the map; it’ll also be shown in different cities to qualify for all the awards," he says.

"This could go down as one of the best films ever filmed in The Ocean State."