Some iconic films were once strictly underground

"Scarface" is a 23-year-old movie. And according to critic Leonard Maltin, it stinks (1 1/2 stars).

So explain why, in 2006, "Scarface" T-shirts, "Scarface" posters, "Scarface" collectibles are all over the place.

Weird. Especially because any critic in 1983 could have told you that "Scarface" was a middling "Godfather" knockoff, a much-inferior remake of a classic 1931 gangster film, a three-hour showcase for Al Pacino at his scenery-chewing worst.

How could they have known that the snarling Pacino, machine gun in hand ("Say hello to my little friend!") would be available at Spencer Gifts as a mounted poster, with real bullets embedded in the frame?

Or that rappers ranging from Biggie Smalls to Ice Cube would reference the movie in their lyrics? Or that the drug lord (Wesley Snipes) in 1991's "New Jack City" would model himself on Al Pacino's Tony Montana and be shown in his penthouse apartment obsessively watching "Scarface"? Or that a prominent rapper would simply call himself Scarface?

Or that the original Paul Muni "Scarface," once considered the greatest of all 1930s gangster films, has now become a footnote to the Al Pacino movie, rather than the other way around?

There are hit movies ("Jaws"). There are cult movies ("Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS").

And there are cult movies that most people don't know are cult movies.

"Scarface" is one of these. And it's not the only improbable example that has pop culture experts scratching their heads.

"It's a mystery why some things hit a nerve and take off," says Michael Stern, who wrote "The Encyclopedia of Pop Culture" with his wife, Jane. "I guess each of these movies resonates in its own particular way."

In "Plan 9 From Outer Space" - a cult movie that most people do know is a cult movie - the malaprop-prone narrator solemnly warns viewers that they may one day pass someone in the street, "and you'll never know, because they'll be from outer space."

In that spirit, here are some ordinary-looking movies that may have passed you by. And you'll never know - because they're cult films.

'Napoleon Dynamite'

Have you seen a "Vote for Pedro" T-shirt? Have you wondered what the heck it means? Then you are one of the millions who have not seen "Napoleon Dynamite," a quirky, low-budget comedy from 2004 that has almost single-handedly revived the tourist industry of Idaho.

"It's certainly put us on the map," says Kathleen Cole, spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce of Preston, Idaho, where "Napoleon" was shot on a $400,000 budget by novice filmmaker Jared Hess.

The Preston Web site, Cole reports, went from 2,500 hits a month to 45,000 after the film became a cult smash with Gen Y'ers - who identified with its dorky high school hero Napoleon (Jon Heder) and his sidekick Pedro Sanchez (Efren Ramirez), who runs for student council president.

Preston, a mostly Mormon hamlet of about 4,500 people, was recently the site of the first "Napoleon" festival, which drew a crowd of 7,000. "Napoleon" merchandise, popular with teens nationwide, is in overdrive in Idaho: There are "Napoleon" hats, shirts, key chains, mugs and posters with the movie's catchphrases, "Vote for Pedro" and "Sweet!" And the tourist bonanza is having ripples throughout the state, Cole says.

"One girl e-mailed us and said she wanted to plan her wedding so she could have her honeymoon during the 'Napoleon' festival," Cole says.

'The Warriors'

In 1979, the year that hip-hop officially arrived, a movie called "The Warriors" neatly packaged many of its values into one big, campy spray-painted package. DJ Lynne Thigpen, whose mouth is seen in extreme close-up as she spreads the word to get the street gang the Warriors, plays R&B tunes such as "Nowhere to Run," but the gang violence, the graffiti, the whole neon-lit ambience is pure hip-hop. Director Walter Hill originally wanted to make the Warriors an all-black gang, but he was overruled by the studio.

With little boosting by the studio, "The Warriors" immediately connected with 1979 audiences - including some who got violent in theaters during its initial run. Almost 30 years later, the movie is still a touchstone: Rappers refer to it (Craig Mack, "Flava in Ya Ear"), Burger King used it in commercials and, in October, Rockstar released a video game based on it.

"The movie is probably more popular now than it was then," says Tom Byron, editor-in-chief of Official U.S. PlayStation magazine, who says "The Warriors" game is being marketed to twentysomethings, most of whom were not born when the film was released.

In addition to the marketable name, "The Warriors" also offered gamers a no-brainer premise. The film - based on Sol Yurick's novel, based on the old Greek classic "Anabasis" by the fourth-century writer Xenophon - is about gang members who have to fight their way from the Bronx to their home turf of Coney Island.

"It's a journey movie, a quest, and these guys who find themselves in a bad situation have to get back home," Byron says. "That makes it a great premise for a video game. Video games tend to be quest-oriented."

'Scarface'

It was gangsta rappers who turned "Scarface" into a cultural phenomenon. The question remains: Why this gangster movie? Why not "The Godfather," "Goodfellas" or "Donnie Brasco"?

Chalk it up to several things "Scarface" doesn't have in common with other mob movies, says Vibe magazine's Serena Kim.

For one thing, it's not really a mob movie.

"The movie is about one ruthless individual," Kim says. "'The Godfather' is more like a family epic. It has this subtext of (family) honor. With 'Scarface,' there's this individualism thing. The film is about cold-blooded ambition. There's a lot of connection between the values of the movie and the values of hip-hop."

For another thing, drug trafficking - a subtext in other gangster movies - is front and center in "Scarface," as it is in much of gangsta rap.

"There's a Biggie lyric, 'Never Get High on Your Own Supply' (from 'Ten Crack Commandments') that comes right from the movie," Kim says.

Finally, director Brian De Palma and screenwriter Oliver Stone made a fateful decision when they transformed the Tony Camonte character of 1931's "Scarface" - himself based on Al Capone - into Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who climbs to the top of the 1970s Miami drug racket.

To many black viewers, Kim says, there's all the difference in the world between an Italian and a Cuban. Even if he is played by Al Pacino.

"Italians at the end of the day are Europeans," Kim says. "This Cuban guy is a person of color and a political refugee."