Morris was definitely something when he first started out, and he was tight with West, making three films in succession with him.

It seems that West's affair with Todd (which had begun right before he directed his last film CORSAIR, with Morris, also featuring Todd under a pseudonym) threw him off course a bit. It almost has a kind of A STAR IS BORN flavor to it, successful director hits a speed bump as his wife/mistress' star continues to shine.

The IMDB repeats an assertion that West made a deathbed confession to Morris in 1952 asserting that he had indeed killed Todd, but there doesn't seem to be anything out in the zeitgeist corroborating that. Whatever happened appears to have pretty much broken West, who seemed to be wavering from some form of mid-life malaise before Todd's death.