Almost all of the movies taken from Hemingway novels involve writers as major characters. The difficulty for me is the qualification of “early 40s” Even J’accuse misses the mark (1938). “The Sea Wolf” was made in the early 40s. You have to also realize that anyone who saw any of the movies you’re looking for during their run in a theater is almost certainly dead.
Shadowlands starting Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger is the story of the writer C.S. Lewis falling in love with Anerican poet Joy Davidman (pen name) of Joy Gresham.
So, you get two writers for the
price of one.
It has generally excellent reviews as well as a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.