- Ellery Queen: You can sleep while I drive.
- Inspector Richard Queen: The way you drive, we can both sleep.
- Ellery Queen: [writing a note for his father after a late night] Dear Dad: I wanted to get an early start, and decided to let you sleep. Love, Ellery.
- [Ellery moves to leave the note under the skull - but there's a note already there]
- Inspector Richard Queen: [voiceover] Dear Ellery: I wanted to get an early start, and decided to let you sleep. Love, Dad.
- Ellery Queen: [Simon is revealing the identity of the murderer on a live broadcast. He's holding a microphone to Ellery] Congratulations, Simon. I'm very impressed with the way you developed the clue and dug into Herb Morrow's background.
- Simon Brimmer: Very sporting of you to say so, Queen.
- Ellery Queen: Unfortunately, there's only one trouble with it...
- Simon Brimmer: [snatching back the microphone] Don't say it!
- Simon Brimmer: Tell your father to alert his minions. Someone has killed America's beloved tunesmith.
- Ellery Queen: Now I know who killed Alvin Winer, and I'll bet you do, too. I'll give you a little help: it wasn't Dan Murphy. But if you think about the clues, they should all point right to the killer. Now remember, Alvin Winer was color blind, and this is the second time I almost left my hat behind me. All right, who's the guilty party? Buddy Parker? Gary Swift? Herb Morrow? Or was it somebody closer to home, like Penny or Dina Carroll? Maybe, just maybe, it was someone else.
- Ellery Queen: Gary, what chance does a singer have of a hit, if his record isn't played constantly on the radio?
- Gary Swift: About as much as a snowball You-Know-Where.
- Penny Carroll: Herb was best man at their wedding.
- Herbie Morrow: Hmm. Now I'm fixing to be his pallbearer.
- Herbie Morrow: He didn't like Gary's arrangement.
- Inspector Richard Queen: Question is, did he like Gary?
- Simon Brimmer: [reciting lyrics for his self-composed theme song] A foggy night, the stars grow dimmer, murders afoot, call Simon Brimmer. Policeman snoop without a glimmer. To solve the case, call Simon Brimmer.