Produced at Shepperton Studios, where another musical adaption of a Charles Dickens novel, Oliver! (1968), had been made two years before . It reused many of the sets from "Oliver!" that were still being held in storage. Both films were photographed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Oswald Morris B.S.C. (Morris won his Academy award for yet another film musical, Fiddler on the Roof, the following year.
Sir Alec Guinness did not enjoy doing this movie. It required much more time than he expected because of the need of wires and harness for his floating character. He suffered a double-hernia that required surgery to repair.
Although the music was composed by Leslie Bricusse and nominated for two Academy Awards, Bricusse could not write music; he would dictate lyrics and melody to music supervisor Ian Fraser who would transcribe and arrange them for Scrooge's score. Bricusse did so on many other movies to much acclaim.
It took more than three hours each day to apply the old-age Scrooge make-up to Albert Finney, who was only thirty-three-years-old at the time.
Scrooge, played by 33-year old Albert Finney, is actually younger than his nephew Harry, played by 46-year old Michael Medwin.