THE DUKES is a comic tale of a down-and-out Doo Wop band who take a bumbling detour into burglary in their endless quest to make good on their dreams.
Featuring an ensemble cast and the directorial debut of actor Robert Davi, the film is a caper that is also deeply candid about life, love, friendship and the heart it takes to keep on struggling to find meaning and connection as life takes one absurd turn after another.
When these middle-aged buddies are forced to become mid-life bandits – and think they’ve hit on a sure-fire plan for the score of a lifetime — it accidentally results in greater pleasures than loot.
Assisted by a retro rock n roll soundtrack, the fun begins in 2007, as The Dukes–once hit-makers in the 1960s–are barely making ends meet.
Band leader Danny DePasquale (ROBERT DAVI, “Die Hard,” “License To Kill”) is horrified by the fact that he can’t even afford to help his ex-wife fix his darling son’s teeth. Meanwhile, his partner, George Zucco (“Bullets Over Broadway,” “A Bronx Tale”), drowns his financial sorrows by indulging his passion for plus-size women. Even as their manager, Lou Fiola (Academy Award® nominated director-producer-writer-actor PETER BOGDANOVICH), searches to find gigs for an act that has gone utterly obsolete, Danny and George take jobs in their feisty Aunt Vee’s (MIRIAM MARGOLYES, “Being Julia”) Italian trattoria.
Danny and George’s closest friends are hardly better off. Armond (FRANK D’AMICO), a stand-up comic who used to open for The Dukes, is now a diabetic confined to a wheelchair; and Murph (ELYA BASKIN, “Spiderman 2 and 3”) lost his lofty job as an airline mechanic after smoking just a wee too much weed.
But even amidst their busted dreams, broken marriages, faded celebrity and daily humiliations, The Dukes are determined to resurrect their flagging hopes and self-esteems. They daydream of money-making schemes that would allow them to build an updated Doo Wop nightclub from which they could stage a fresh comeback. Then, opportunity knocks. When they hear of a shady dentist’s lab brimming with cavity-filling gold, the temptation is irresistible. After recruiting a semi-pro safecracker (Emmy winner BRUCE WEITZ, “Hill Street Blues”), the heist is on.
But nothing comes easy for the Dukes these days, and soon the Big Score blows up into a giant nightmare. Yet when all seems lost – time after time – the Dukes refuse to go down. In the end, The Dukes’ relentless pursuit of Doo Wop turns out to be not just about music, money or manhood, but about the bonds of brotherhood, the tenacity of the heart and the indomitable nature of the American Dream . . . even when you have to re-invent it the second time around.
THE DUKES is directed by Robert Davi from a screenplay by Davi and James Andronica.
The film is produced by Davi, Don Dunn and James Cypherd and co-produced by Chazz Palminteri. Also joining the cast are Melora Hardin (“The Office”), Eloise DeJoria (“Weekend at Bernie’s”), jazz star Alphonse Mouzon and ten year-old Dominic Scott Key (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”).
