In the beginning of his career he worked on stage as an actor and manager. He came to the United States in 1915, and started his film career as an assistant director to Emile Chautard at the World Film Company in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In 1917 he made his own directorial debut As Man Made Her. During the next three and a half decades he directed over one hundred films. After the beginning of the 1950s he moved to television.

While working at the RKO in the beginning of the 1930s, he showed some artistic and skillful eye with many of his films. The finest examples include Thirteen Women (1932) and The Lost Squadron (1932). Especially the latter is a memorable thriller about Hollywood stunt flyers, who risk their lives under the direction of monstrous Erich von Stroheim.

Although Archainbaud directed films of all genres, he is nowadays mainly linked with westerns. In fact, it was not until the last decade of his directorial career until he specialized in them. With the producer Harry Sherman he made several Hopalong Cassidy oaters. Later he was also one of the principal directors of Gene Autry’s Flying A TV productions, where he made several episodes for such weekly television series as Buffalo Bill Jr., Annie Oakley and The Adventures of Champion (TV series).