Written by Flagg and Carol Sobieski, and starring Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson, the film tells the story of a middle-aged housewife who, unhappy with her life, befriends an elderly lady in a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know.

Her husband Ed has an aunt living at an Alabama nursing home, where Evelyn meets elderly Ninny Threadgoode.

Frank comes to Whistle Stop to kidnap his infant son, but an unseen assailant thwarts his attempt, and he is soon reported missing.

Taking into account Frank's reputation for drunkenness and his body never being found, the judge rules his probable death as accidental and drops all charges against Idgie and Big George.

[2] He was introduced to it by producer Lisa Lindstrom, with whom he worked on television films Heat Wave and Breaking Point.

He decided to turn the story into a film and pitched the idea to Norman Lear's company, Act III Communications, who were interested and gave him a small budget for a screenwriter.

The job was made somewhat easier by the work done by Sobieski and Avnet in choosing which characters from the book were going to be featured, but she found it difficult and also left the project, after writing 70 pages of the screenplay.

[3] He had worked with Kathy Bates and Chris O'Donnell on the 1990 film Men Don't Leave before offering them the roles of Evelyn Couch and Buddy Threadgoode respectively.

[3] The scene where Idgie goes to collect honey from a tree stump for Ruth was originally intended to be performed by a stunt double.

[5] Unlike the novel, the film does not make the lesbian romance between the two central characters explicit, instead leaving the relationship between Idgie and Ruth ambiguous.

[6] This runs counter to two comments Ninny makes when she first meets Evelyn: "I was practically adopted by the Threadgoodes; I married her [Idgie's] brother, Cleo"; and "I had the biggest crush on him.

[Buddy Threadgoode, Idgie's older brother]"[11] Fried Green Tomatoes was given a limited release in the United States on December 27, 1991, opening in five theaters.

The website's consensus reads: "Fried Green Tomatoes' tearjerking drama is undeniably manipulative, but in the hands of a skilled cast that includes Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates, it's also powerfully effective.

"[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[10][17] In 2005, Fried Green Tomatoes was nominated by the American Film Institute for its "AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers" list of most inspiring movies.

[22] The Fried Green Tomatoes: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was supervised by Arthur Baker,[31] who also produced several of the songs.

[32] The soundtrack featured Patti LaBelle performing Bessie Jackson's 1933 blues song, "Barbecue Bess".

[41] In the United Kingdom, the VHS was released as Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Columbia Tristar Home Video on October 2, 1992.

[43] After the release of Fried Green Tomatoes, the town of Juliette saw an influx of tourists and, with Jon Avnet's encouragement, locals opened the Whistle Stop Café, recreated to mirror the film set.

[45] The film caused the fried green tomatoes food dish to be known as a delicacy of the Southern United States, when it previously did not have such a status.