He is probably best remembered for directing actor Bob Hope in a number of films including My Favorite Blonde (1942), Let's Face It (1943), Where There's Life (1947), and The Lemon Drop Kid (1951).

Lanfield's most profitable film, however, was the first teaming of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in 1939's The Hound of the Baskervilles.

In the early 1950s the reputedly strict taskmaster-director moved to television where his vaudeville and comic background in films were put to use in television comedies including Where's Raymond?, McHale's Navy and The Addams Family.

Lanfield was married to film actress Shirley Mason from 1927 until his death in 1972.

[2] He is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.