Evergreens Are Rental Gold Mine : Customer favorites include ‘Scarface,’ ‘Up in Smoke’ and ‘La Femme Nikita,’ as well as cult, horror and foreign films.

It’s a given that star-powered movies are the bread and butter of the video business. But despite the demands of a fickle public, some videos manage to consistently do business months, even years, after their release.

These are the so-called evergreens, the precious perennials that are embraced by customers and whose enduring popularity is sustained by word of mouth.

Evergreens span all age groups and genres. They are some of the most beloved films of all time as well as box-office disappointments and career curiosities. Others are certified cult films that once regularly haunted midnight screenings.

What catches on can baffle veteran retailers. Why is Ralph Bakshi’s “Fritz the Cat” one of the most popular titles at Rocket Video in Hollywood? “That’s a good question,” says owner John Othar. Why have customers at Vide-O-Lympix in Huntington Beach latched onto Wim Wenders’ “Until the End of the World”? pondered manager Madeline Fields.

Then again, to quote the commercial, why ask why? Marupong Chuladul, a clerk at Vidiots in Santa Monica, never does. “I never ask why,” he said, “because I’m happy when someone rents ‘Viva Las Vegas’ or ‘Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman.’ ”

A survey of a handful of stores in California yielded these perennial customer favorites: “Scarface” (the Al Pacino version), Cheech and Chong’s “Up in Smoke,” “La Femme Nikita,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Caddyshack,” “Reservoir Dogs” and “Grease.” Less surprising are the first two “Godfather” films and the Indiana Jones, “Alien” and “Star Trek” series.

David Lynch’s oft-cited “Eraserhead” is especially precious to retailers who still have copies because it has long been on moratorium and is unavailable for purchase from distributors. Likewise the Disney animated classics “Lady and the Tramp” and “Sleeping Beauty,” which are the hardest to find, said Jeff Leyton of First Video Exchange, a used-movie distributor in Gardena.

Every store has its own success stories. “Revenge,” Kevin Costner’s 1990 box-office flop, is big with “mostly older Mexican men,” said Nancy Packowski, manager of 20-20 Video in Hollywood. “It’s that (co-star) Anthony Quinn thing. I’ve also had to replace (Edward James Olmos’) ‘American Me’ three times,” since tapes do wear out.

What these disparate films have in common, retailers agreed, is that special something known as repeatability. For their devotees, they stand up to multiple viewings.

As with cult films, there is a sense of community that comes with adopting a film that was not fully appreciated by critics or the moviegoing public. Forget “Mean Streets,” “Raging Bull” and “The Age of Innocence.” At Vidiots, the Martin Scorsese film of choice is “King of Comedy.” “It rents all the time,” Chuladul said. “It didn’t do well in theaters, but people rent it and discover how dark and funny it is. If anything went wrong (with a copy), we would always replace it.”

There is also the coolness factor. Most evergreen titles are “cool movies to know,” said William Garcia at Music Revolution in Whittier. “Our customers know all the dialogue to ‘Scarface.’ . . . Others hear so much about it that they want to see it and be a part of what’s going on.”

At Tower Records in Lake Forest, any film that won a best picture Oscar is a favorite, notably “Gandhi” and “Terms of Endearment.” Also popular? Monty Python’s “Life of Brian.”

For many movie fans, the plac es to go are independent video stores, which compete with major chains and generate customer loyalty by offering breadth as well as depth.

“If you stock only the top 30 titles, you’ll dry up your clientele pretty quickly,” said Peggy Dorrance, co-owner of Video Station in Alameda. “People have an appetite for things that are different. We used to just dabble in foreign films, but we had a number of requests for them because they were hard to find. Now, it’s a large section.”

At Rocket Video in Hollywood, owner Othar discovered that his customers responded most to films by directors who have an uncompromising vision or have avoided the taint of commercialism. Customer favorites include “Faster, Pussycat Kill! Kill!” (directed by Russ Meyer), “My Own Private Idaho” (Gus Van Sant), “Shock Corridor” (Sam Fuller), “Glen or Glenda” (Ed Wood), “Serial Mom” (John Waters), “Ms. 45” (Abel Ferrara) and “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” (John McNaughton).

Camp is king among customers at Video West in West Hollywood. “The Women” and “Valley of the Dolls” are two of the store’s most popular titles, said video buyer Lyle Palaski.

Horror always scares up business at Video Station. “We get everything that comes out,” Dorrance said. “These movies have the dumbest names, but the customers love them. ‘Slumber Party Massacre’ is very popular with teen-age girls.” She also noted a resurgence in the popularity of the cowardly cartoon hound Scooby-Doo.

Classics, foreign and art-house films are the main attraction at the Beverly Hills Videocenter. “We have a large following in the motion picture industry,” said owner Emil Reisman. “That’s our neighborhood.”

Among his most consistent rentals are Preston Sturges’ “Sullivan’s Travels”; Blake Edwards’ “The Party,” starring Peter Sellers; Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless”; “Sweet Smell of Success,” with Burt Lancaster; Mel Brooks’ “The Producers”; John Dahl’s “Red Rock West,” and Ross McElwee’s first-person documentary “Sherman’s March.”

At Salzer’s Video in Ventura, the big draws are not Clint, Arnold or Mel but PBS and National Geographic. “Special-interest videos are another way to differentiate and appeal to a wider spectrum of interests,” said owner Jim Salzer. “I’ve always done well with Joseph Campbell. The Bill Moyers video with Robert Bly rented 238 times over a two-year period.”