- Was the original director of Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), but was replaced after two weeks of shooting by John Frankenheimer.
- Directed 2 actors to Oscar nominations: Alec Guinness (Best Actor, The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)), and Kevin Kline (Best Supporting Actor, A Fish Called Wanda (1988)). Kline won the Oscar for his turn.
- Father of David Crichton.
- Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 152-154. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
- In his latter career, he directed 14 episodes of the science fiction series Space: 1999 (1975), in which a large explosion propels the moon out of Earth's orbit, hurtling into space and essentially becoming a spaceship for the Moonbase Alpha scientists stranded from the disaster, that event in the story line occurring on the (then futuristic) date September 13, 1999 as indicated at the start of every episode. Crichton would die one day after that date, on September 14, 1999. Interestingly, the 9/11 tragedies would occur two years minus two days after the date in the series.
- He was originally set to direct the film version of "Lucky Jim" (1957), but was replaced after a few days' shooting by John Boulting.
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