Fried Green Tomatoes - The Movie (mostly)

Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates), a timid, unhappy housewife in her forties, meets elderly Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy) in a Birmingham, Alabama nursing home. Ninny, over several encounters with Evelyn, tells her the story of the now-abandoned town of Whistle Stop, Alabama, and the people that lived there.

Ninny's story begins with tomboy Imogene "Idgie" Threadgoode (Mary Stuart Masterson), the youngest of the Threadgoode children, who Ninny describes as her sister-in-law. Idgie's close relationship with her charming older brother Buddy (Chris O'Donnell) is cut short when he is hit by a train and killed. Devastated, Idgie recedes from formal society for much of her childhood and adolescence, until Buddy's former girlfriend, the straitlaced Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker), intervenes at the request of the concerned Threadgoode family.

Idgie initially resists Ruth's attempts at friendship, but then gradually allows a deep attachment to develop. Ruth leaves Whistle Stop to marry Frank Bennett (Nick Searcy) and moves to Valdosta, Georgia. Idgie is upset at losing her friend and struggles to forget her. After some time she visits Ruth, who is now pregnant and suffering from physical abuse from Frank. Against Frank's wishes, Idgie persuades Ruth to leave him and return to Whistle Stop, where her child, named Buddy Jr., is born. Papa Threadgoode gives Idgie money to start a business so that she can care for Ruth and Buddy Jr. Ruth and Idgie open the Whistle Stop Cafe, employing cook Sipsey (Cicely Tyson) and her son Big George (Stan Shaw), who makes a barbecue that quickly becomes popular with their patrons.

Frank Bennett eventually returns to Whistle Stop in an attempt to kidnap Buddy Jr., but is thwarted by an unseen assailant. Frank goes missing and his car is later found at the bottom of a nearby lake. Idgie is immediately a suspect, as she had publicly threatened violence against him for beating Ruth. She is arrested along with Big George for Frank's murder. The police offer to release her and pin the crime solely on Big George, but Idgie refuses to sacrifice her friend. During the subsequent trial, the local minister lies, providing Idgie and Big George with an alibi for the time of Frank's disappearance. Taking into account Frank's reputation for drunkenness, the judge rules his death an accident and Idgie and Big George are cleared of all charges.

After the trial, Ruth develops cancer and dies. Following her death, the café closes and over time, many Whistle Stop residents eventually move away, bringing Ninny to the end of her story, but not before the revelation of what really happened to Frank: Sipsey had accidentally killed Frank with a cast-iron skillet while trying to stop him from kidnapping Buddy Jr. Big George then barbecued Frank's body and served it to the Georgia police officer who was searching for Frank.

Evelyn discovers that during Ninny's temporary stay at the nursing home, Ninny's house was condemned and torn down. Evelyn, having become good friends with Ninny, offers her a room in her home which Ninny accepts. As the two friends walk away from Ninny's former home, they pass Ruth's grave, freshly adorned with flowers and a card from "The Bee Charmer," Ruth's old nickname for Idgie.

The film's subplot concerns Evelyn's dissatisfaction with her marriage and her life, her growing confidence, and her developing friendship with Ninny. The narrative switches several times between Ninny's story, which is set between World War I and World War II, and Evelyn's life in 1980s Birmingham.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Kathy Bates as Evelyn Couch
Mary Stuart Masterson as Idgie Threadgoode
Mary-Louise Parker as Ruth Jamison
Jessica Tandy as Ninny Threadgoode
Cicely Tyson as Sipsey
Chris O'Donnell as Buddy Threadgoode
Stan Shaw as Big George
Gailard Sartain as Ed Couch
Timothy Scott as Smokey Lonesome
Gary Basaraba as Grady Kilgore
Lois Smith as Mama Threadgoode
Danny Nelson as Papa Threadgoode
Jo Harvey Allen as Women's Awareness Teacher
Macon McCalman as Prosecutor
Richard Riehle as Reverend Scroggins
Raynor Scheine as Curtis Smoot
Grace Zabriskie as Eva Bates
Reid Binion as Young Julian
Nick Searcy as Frank Bennett
Drew Wilkins as Young Cleo

Fannie Flagg, who wrote the screenplay and the renowned book the movie was based on, "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe," is best known as a panelist on the 1970's game show "Match Game PM" (1975). She was born in Alabama, where the book is set, and is now a celebrated author of Southern-genre writing, in the vein of Margaret Mitchell and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Director Jon Avnet referred to Mary-Louise Parker as "Lou" and Mary Stuart Masterson as "Stu" on the set because their names are so similar and he had to say them so often.

Author Fannie Flagg is the woman telling the classroom of disaffected women, "You can get that spark back into your marriage!"

It is widely accepted that the inspiration for the Whistle Stop Cafe is the Irondale Cafe, located in the north-eastern Birmingham town of Irondale. Fried green tomatoes are a popular dish.

Carol Sobieski wrote the first draft of the screenplay, which the director and producers thought were wonderful - but it wasn't the movie they wanted to do. Next, Fannie Flagg was brought on to do another draft and she finished seventy pages before quitting. With no money left to hire another writer, director Jon Avnet took it upon himself to write the screenplay and spent the next three years doing so. He did, however, stay in close contact with Flagg to make sure he stayed true to her book.

Mary Stuart Masterson did all of the bee stunts herself because her stunt double quit at the last minute.

Author Fannie Flagg was good friends with Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics. In the movie, Mrs. Threadgoode suggests Evelyn would be "good with cosmetics" - so she becomes a successful Mary Kay beauty consultant.

There really is a Whistle Stop Cafe that does indeed serve fried green tomatoes (among other Southern foods) just north of Macon Georgia. It is in the actual area where many of the scenes were filmed. After the film became a huge success, the Whistle Stop Cafe set was turned into an actual restaurant, and its surrounding area into a tourist attraction. Although they may have filmed in Georgia, the true Whistle Stop Cafe is in Irondale, Alabama (a suburb or Birmingham, where Author Fannie Flagg grew up.)

The "Valdosta" courthouse in the movie (where the trial is held) is not actually Valdosta's courthouse. The real one is white brick, the movie courthouse has red brick. The red "Valdosta" courthouse is actually the Pike County Courthouse in Zebulon, GA.

In July 2008, afterellen.com reported that Mary-Louise Parker said that she, her costar Mary Stuart Masterson, and screenwriter (and original novel author) Fannie Flagg were all strong advocates for depicting in the film the lesbian relationship between Ruth and Idgie that had appeared in the book, but the director, Jon Avnet, and the producers of the film chose instead to excise the romance and just make the two characters into friends. In the DVD extras, Avnet does say that he considered Idgie and Ruth's food fight scene in the movie as an analogy for a love scene between the two that he chose not to include.

Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates both won the Best Actress Oscar for the two previous years, in Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Misery (1990). 1991's Best Actress was Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Mary-Louise Parker appeared in the prequels, Red Dragon (2002).

The house where Ruth lives with her husband is located in rural Pike County, GA.

(Source: IMDB)

Buddy: Did I ever tell you about the oysters?
Idgie: Oysters?
Buddy: I didn't tell you bout the oysters? Think about all the millions of oysters lying around on the bottom of the ocean. Then one day, God comes along and he says, "I think I'm gonna make that one different." and you know what he does? he puts a little piece of sand in it. and guess what it can do that the others can't.
Idgie: What?
Buddy: It can make a beautiful pearl.
Idgie: What if God made a mistake?
Buddy: Well, the way I figure it, he never makes mistakes. I mean, he made sure we got together. He made sure you got the best-looking most charming brother in the world!

Ninny: It like to have killed us all. But nary a one took it as hard as Idgie. Everyone thought she'd die right along with him. Night after night, she stayed by the river. Big George was the only soul she'd let near her, and he watched over her night and day. You know, a heart can be broken, but it still keeps a-beating just the same.

Evelyn: Ed... If I'd answered the door wearing only cellophane, would you still be watching the baseball game?
Ed: No, honey, I'd probably be checking you into a loony bin.

Idgie: It's a boy!
Reverend Scroggins: I think a little prayer of thanksgiving would be in order.
Idgie: God damn it to hell, son of a bitch, she did it! Here's to Ruth.

Idgie: He won't even sit in the same room and have a meal today.
Sipsey: Oh, it don't make no kind of sense. A big old ox like Grady won't sit next to a coloured child, but he eats eggs which shoot right out of a chicken's ass.

Evelyn: Excuse me. I was waiting for that space.
Girl #1: Yeah, tough!
Girl #2: Face it, lady, we're younger and faster.
Evelyn: ... Towanda. (screams and smashes into the car) Towanda!! Yes ma'am!
Girl #2: what are you doing? Are you crazy?
Evelyn: Face it, girls. I'm older and I have more insurance.

Evelyn: I never get mad, Mrs Threadgoode. Never. The way I was raised, it was bad manners. Well, I got mad and it felt terrific. I felt like I could beat the shit out of all those punks. Excuse my language. Just beat 'em to a pulp. beat 'em till they begged for mercy. Towanda the avenger. And after I wipe out all the punks of this world, I'll take on the wife-beaters, like Frank Bennett, and machine-gun their genitals! Towanda will go on the rampage. I'll put tiny little bombs in Penthouse and Playboy so they'll explode when you open them. And I'll ban all fashion models who weigh less than 130 pounds. And I'll give half the military budget to people of 65 and declare wrinkles sexually desirable. Towanda, righter of wrongs, queen beyond compare!
Ninny: How many of them hormones are you taking, honey?

Idgie: I can't believe he swore on the bible.
Ruth: Not really. If that judge had looked any closer, he'd have seen it was really a copy of Moby Dick.

Ruth: I love your stories. Tell me a story, Idgie. Go on, you old bee charmer. Tell me a good tall tale. Tell me the one about the lake.
Idgie: What lake?
Ruth: The one that use to be here.
Idgie: Well, that was just a lie.
Ruth: I know that, fool. Tell me anyway. Tell me a story.
Idgie: Uh. One time... there was this lake... And it was right outside of town. We used to go fishing and swimming and canoeing in it. And, uh, see, one November, this big flock of ducks came in and landed on that lake. And then the temperature dropped so fast that the lake just froze right there. And they... er... the ducks... they... flew off, you see, and they took that lake right with them. Now they say that lake is somewhere over in Georgia. Can you imagine that?

Ruth: I can understand having a funeral for an arm, I just don't know WHY she insists on calling him Stump.
Sipsey: Miss Idgie says everybody else will be calling him that, we might as well be the first.

Ninny Threadgoode: Hey Evelyn, somebody stole my house.

Continuity: When Evelyn arrives in Whistle Stop, Ninny is sitting on a suitcase. A few minutes later, when they walk towards the car, the suitcase has disappeared.

Continuity: Beer disappears from Ruth's hand between shots during baseball game

Continuity: When Idgie, Big George, and a third man go to get Ruth so that she can leave her husband, they all arrive in one car, but when they leave Big George isn't in the car.

Continuity: Ed says the Evelyn has hit the younger girls car 6 times, but in the film she only hits it 4 times.

Continuity: When Buddy hangs up the swinging rope off of the bridge before entering the house, he hangs it on a post on the right side of the bridge. However, when he goes to retrieve Ruth's hat later, he grabs the rope from the left side of the bridge.

Continuity: When Ninnie is voicing the story of Ruth's cancer, she states that Ruth is moved to the Threadgoode house and placed downstairs. The following scenes indicate that Ruth is in an upstairs bedroom, as we see Idgie looking out the window, and looking down at the kids playing ball, and we see the tops of trees when Sipsey prepares the medications.

Continuity: Evelyn pauses with the wrapped fried green tomatoes in hand and looks down the hallway. There are several people in the hallway, one is an older woman with an orange flowered robe and a bandaged left foot. She is seated facing Evelyn as she begins her walk down the hallway, but as Evelyn passes the seated woman she suddenly has her back to the wall.

Continuity: At the sister's wedding, little Idgie climbs the tree; she throws her second shoe down twice.

Factual errors: In the scene where the young women are in the boxcar (from which they pass out canned goods), the box cars were obviously built by the set decorators. And wrong. The cars have outside bracing, common enough in the period of the film. But all outside-braced boxcars had their wood planks running horizontally, not vertically as in the movie.

Revealing mistakes: When Frank Bennett's truck is retrieved from the river, as it's being hoisted up and spins, it is obvious that the engine/transmission have been removed, and a painted piece of sheet-metal put in place to obscure the void.

Continuity: When Evelyn picks up the note from Idgy to Ruth at the end of the film, she does not place the note back on her grave beside the honey. But when it flashes back to the grave the note has been placed back on Ruth's grave stone.

Continuity: When Idgie is talking to Buddy in the tree, Mama comes out onto the porch, but a few moments into the conversation, we see her come outside again.

Revealing mistakes: As Idgie gets the honey and puts it in a jar for Ruth you see her wipe off the outside of the jar with the honeycomb inside. However, when she hands the jar to Ruth there is no honeycomb inside the jar.

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the beginning of the movie when Ed and Evelyn are lost at the Whistle Stop searching for their Aunt Vesta's retirement home and are looking on the map, Ed mistakenly calls Evelyn "Ruth".

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the beginning of the movie when Mrs. Threadgood is talking to Evelin she says that Idge is arrested. But it turns out that she does not get convicted of murder like Mrs. Threadgood says she does.

Revealing mistakes: When Evelyn's husband brings her flowers, she pulls out previous flowers from the vase and we can see there is no water in the vase. Both bunch of flowers appear to be artificial.

Continuity: During one of Evelyn's visits to Ninny, Ninny is sporting a new hair-do. Her hair has been cut quite short and colored lavender. However, the next time Evelyn visits Ninny, her hair is once again very long and very white.

Factual errors: If Frank Bennett was murdered in Whistle Stop Alabama, then the murder trial would have to have taken place in Alabama, not Georgia. The state of Georgia would have no jurisdiction whatsoever on any crime committed in another state. A Georgia sheriff could certainly investigate the matter, but any actual prosecution would have to be undertaken in the state where the crime was committed.

(Source: IMDB)

Prosecutor Percy: Why did you go with Idgie Threadgoode?
Judge: Answer the question Mrs. Bennett.
Ruth: Because she... she's the best friend I ever had, and I love her.

Sipsey: It's all right, honey. Let her go. Let her go. You know, Miss Ruth was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.

Missy: I hear they've got an assertive training class for southern women.
[looks puzzled]
Missy: Of course that's a contradiction in terms.

Mama Threadgoode: It's an obituary... oh no, honey, Ruth's mother died. And this is from the Bible, it's from the Book of Ruth. And Ruth said: "Whither thou goest, I will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people."

Ninny Threadgoode: Oh, what I wouldn't give for a plate of fried green tomatoes like we used to have at the cafe. Ooh!

Ninny Threadgoode: I found out what the secret to life is: friends. Best friends.