Evelyn(Kathy Bates ) who is struggling with middle age, her weight, depression and her marriage. She becomes friends with Ninny (Jessica Tandy) who is in her eighties, and who helps Evelyn become more confident and happier through being there for her and telling her the story of two of her friends Idgie ( Mary Stuart Masterton ) and Ruth ( Mary Louise Parker ).

The film screenplay was adapted by the author of the book of the same name, Fanny Flagg. Reading the book gives all of the best bits of the film, but with far more information about other residents of whistle stop. Dot Weems, the postmistress writes a newsletter that moves along with the story, other newspaper reports and normal narrative mixes seemlessly with ninny's rambling tale of friendship, murder, love and strength, helping evelyn see some hope for her own future.

There is lots of information about Ruth, Idgie and Evelyn on other much better sites with pictures, (links below ) so I've put here just a few bits of information about some of the "minor" charactors :

Buddy Threadgoode : Idgie's brother, who loves and is loved by Eva Bates, a character who comforts most of the characters at some point (- in different ways however ! )He (like Idgie ) is able to charm himself out of anything, and his death hurts Idgie deeply, making it hard for her to trust people, and makes her shy away if people begin to like her too much.

Poppa and Momma Threadgoode : a couple who bring up a large, bizarre family while helping anyone else they can - poppa's generosity in the depression causing his general store to go bankrupt, but with the result that most of the poorer people of whistle stop has been helped to survive.

Cleo, Ninny and Albert : Cleo is Idgie's brother, forced to stop his medical studies when poppa falls ill, eventually putting himself through school to become a chiropractor. He marries the gullible Ninny, who tells the story. He and Ninny, like most of the Threadgoodes, are never financially successful, but are well liked and respected and would give the shirt off their own backs to anyone who needed it. They have a son Albert who never develops past the age of five, but in ninny's own words ( well nearly ! ) he is " one of the purest souls that ever lived on this earth ", being always like a child.

Julian Threadgoode : - ( another brother ) He helps Idgie rescue ruth from her abusive husband Frank Bennet, and seems to have his car stolen by Idgie more often than he drives it himself ! He marries Opal, who runs the whistle-stop beauty salon. ( and stops their hens from laying !)

Sipsey, Big George and Onzell : Sipsey works for Momma Threadgoode, helping bring up most of the children and cooking. She is strong and very superstitious and adopts Big George ( then a baby ) who she gives the name Pullman, after the train taking his birth mother away. [There is more information on other sites about these two, so I'm just giving a few details here ]He marries Onzell, who cooks at the cafe with sipsey and ruth. They have several children : Willie boy ( named wonderful counsellor from the bible ), Jasper, Artis ( who is one of the major characters in the book ) and Naughty Bird.

Ocie : Idgie's friend, who greets Evelyn as a long lost friend simply because she is a friend of ninny's - showing how much she was loved and liked.

Dot and Wilbur Weems :Dot is one of the main story tellers, coping with her accident prone husband Wilbur burning down the garage, sinking while fishing, sitting in poison ivy, and countless other problems. He is a member of Idgie's group of friends the Dill Pickle Club, who pride themselves on lying & telling tall stories, but who also help a lot of people in indirect ways, never obviously.

Smokey Lonesome : A tramp who becomes one of Ruth and Idgie's greatest friends. He is played really well in the film.

There are so many characters, there is no way I can do them justice here, so I'll stop now and let you get at those links !

Here ( FINALLY ! ) is a list of links to sites about Fried Green Tomatoes and Mary Stuart Masterton. Ok - that's it from me, now for the important stuff - the links to a really good group of pages, with a lot of wonderful pictures.

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