Oh, the stories are far-fetched, for sure. Dying cluenot sure if it would really be possible for anyone who has just been shot/stabbed, etc. to come up with something like that. I just kick back and enjoy these far-fetched mysteries. If you think that this ending is far-fetched, you ought to read some literature by John Dickson Carr. Now there's an author who knew how to come up with extremely unbelievable endings.
I was also thinking that they had to find a way of setting it up so that Ellery would wind up in jail. But now I think that he should have been the suspect in the episode where that author gets killed. Ellery could have been at that awards party (instead of home with a cold) and then he could have been an obvious suspect.
Of course, if they had done it that way, then Jim wouldn't have had the chance to show off that adorable way of sneezing (covering his mouth with one hand and holding up his other hand).

Jim Hutton (1934-79) and Ellery Queen =

Also, why did Ellery think that the victim was pointing to him initially? The victim crossed out Ellery's name. He didn't circle it. Obviously he meant that Ellery didn't commit the crime.
I think they were just treating the blue X literally that since he marked the name, they suspected Ellery
Actually, I thought it was stretching the idea just a little that the victim had enough wits still about him as he was dying to think, "If I blue pencil OUT Ellery's name, it will automatically remove both Ellery and the letterer as suspects, and leave the other elements/artists as the killers.
Ellery was darn lucky that Flannigan said something about blue penciling.
Honestly, Ellery should have figured the blue pencil gag out immediately he's a writer, and we KNOW he gives his finished pages/chapters/book to an editor. we learned that in Pharaoh's Curse.
My mom was a writer I know this for sure. The editor, especially for a book, would make HIS corrections with a blue pencil additions/ deletions, etc. and give the pages back to Ellery for debate, clarification, and all that. Ellery should have caught on to the whole blue pencil long before he did, but if he had, the show would have been about 20 minutes long!
I think we have to remember that basically Ellery, Agatha Christie, Murder She Wrote, were all in the armchair detective kind of vein not the more realistic, but still not totally accurate world of the CSI franchise.
Just my thoughts!
How sad, that you were not born in my time, nor I, in yours.

Okay, I see what you mean.
I guess the only thing you can do is to see her in some other TV show/film, and then look up the credits of that program/movie. Or maybe start a thread about it. Someone might be able to help you out. Good luck!

Jim Hutton (1934-79) and Ellery Queen =

Nope, not even as an uncredited.

Isn't her name listed in the credits?
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JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen

I've been trying for years to remember the name of the character actress who played the cleaning lady who hears the murder. She's done a gazillion things, but I can't remember any of them!

Currently watching
Veronica's Veils
. Why was it so tough for them to figure out that the murder victim
turned the film projector on and off on his own
? I should have thought that this would have been obvious to the cops and to Ellery.
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JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen