West clearly had a lot of talent, but he'd acquired a reputation for moodiness and studios had become leery of him, which put him in the position of "retiring" after CORSAIR. Thelma Todd was loyal to him and they eventually became romantically involved & partnered in outside business ventures--but their relationship became more volatile as her stardom increased and was significantly complicated by Todd's former marriage to Pat DiCicco, the mobbed-up "glamour boy of Hollywood" who was some kind of liaison between several studios and the Mob.
There are a couple of YouTube "long-form entries" about Todd (by Internet classic film documentarian Nicole Frederick, she of the winsome narration...) that give a reasonably balanced account of her career and her still-mysterious death:
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