I had the same problem with trying to get properties for individual messages.
You might try this:
For Outlook 2003, with all current patches:
Go to Tools>Options>Other>Advanced Options>
COM Add-Ins
and
Add-In Manager
Disable everything under these and see if it makes a difference. It did in
my case. I re-enabled them and everything then worked fine, too. Some of the
items listed under this were:
Google desktop
Symantec Antivirus
Apple iTunes
Exchange Extensions Property Pages
MS Backup for Outlook