He landed his most memorable film, "Intermezzo: A Love Story" (1939), when a harried David Selznick borrowed the prolific Ratoff from Fox to direct his new Swedish protege Ingrid Bergman in her American debut. The original director, William Wyler, had walked out after a quarrel with Selznick, whose hands were full completing his troubled "Gone with the Wind" and making "Rebecca", Alfred Hitchcock's first American film. The story was a remake of the Swedish film that had made Bergman a star, a tale of doomed love between a famous but married violin virtuoso (Leslie Howard) and his brilliant young piano accompanist (Bergman). Bergman was none too impressed with Ratoff, particularly because she was struggling with English herself and found Ratoff difficult to follow. Ratoff, however, soon saw that "she is sensational", as he told "Life". Leslie Howard had been talked into the part with the promise of a co-producer credit. This was Ratoff's last Hollywood picture.