Trivia

After Maude and Harold steal the police officer's motorcycle, Bud Cort accidentally hit himself in the head with the shovel but just kept going for the sake of the shot.

In all shots of Ruth Gordon (Maude) driving the hearse it is being towed because she never learned how to drive a car.

The soundtrack for Harold and Maude (1971) featured songs written and performed by popular 1970's performer Cat Stevens. He came to Hal Ashby's attention through Elton John, who was being considered for the part of Harold. Stevens was hired to compose the film's score but could not complete his contract for scheduling reasons. Ashby had already been using Cat's song catalog as mood enhancers and scratch tracks during production, so a deal was made to finalize the score using them in place of all originals. Stevens wrote the opening song, "Don't Be Shy," and "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" especially for the film. Most of the Stevens songs heard in the film were taken from his albums Mona Bone Jakone or Tea for the Tillerman. His songs 'Pop Star,' 'Time,' and 'Fill My Eyes' were originally to be used in the film but were cut.

Hal Ashby intended to film a scene of Harold and Maude making love, but Paramount was against it. Actress Ali MacGraw, wife of Paramount boss Robert Evans, wanted a filmed scene where the two kiss cut as well, to which Ashby furiously objected, saying, "That's sort of what the whole movie is about, a boy falling in love with an old woman; the sexual aspect doesn't have to be distasteful." About the less-than-explicit scene, Being Hal Ashby author Steven Schneider wrote, "Ashby wanted to show the beauty of young and old flesh together, something that he knew the younger generation, the hippies, the heads, the open-minded masses would dig, but Evans said it would repulse most audiences, so it had to go." In the end, Ashby won by sneaking the footage into the film's trailer.

The scenes in which Harold turns to look at the camera after successfully scaring off his first date, and when he does "the finger" behind his mother's back after she sees the Jaguar turned into a Hearse, were not in the script. Rather, they were improvised by Bud Cort.

Suzanne Somers: As a "deodorant girl" during a funeral. The scene was cut.

Hal Ashby: the bearded man seen briefly in the amusement park arcade.