Sir Alec Guinness admired the way Sir David Lean directed him, singling out a close-up in which he had to laugh out loud, and which he struggled to make look unmanufactured. Lean told him to forget about the whole thing, sat by his side, and made a little signal to the camera to start turning in the course of the conversation. He said something which made Guinness laugh and then said, "Cut." Guinness: "So he got this shot on a totally false premise, but thank God. I don't think I would have ever achieved it otherwise."
Director Sir David Lean wanted his movie to have a feeling of heightened realism. Working closely in conjunction with art director John Bryan and cinematographer Guy Green, he employed several tricks, such as forced perspective, to achieve this effect. The famous opening shot in the graveyard, for instance, features a brooding church in the background, which, in reality, was only three meters (9'10") high.
It was the third most popular movie at the British box office in 1947 and most popular movie at the Canadian box office in 1948.
Director Sir David Lean was not a particularly well-read man and only became aware of the power of Charles Dickens' story when his wife Kay Walsh dragged him to a stage production of "Great Expectations" in 1939. Incidentally, playing Herbert Pocket in that production was a young Sir Alec Guinness, whom Lean subsequently cast in the same role in the movie. Aside from an uncredited appearance in "Evensong" (1934), it was Guinness's first major screen role, and was also the first of six movies he made with Lean. Martita Hunt was also in the stage production, playing Miss Havisham, a role she reprised in this movie.