Heh, yeah, the dagger bit is just for drama, and if I were Dr. Mortimer I'd be pretty annoyed. On the other hand, he's already had ample experience of Holmes's drama and arrogance, so perhaps he's not surprised.
1. Apparently, his weak heart. If I recall correctly, the introduction of a hound into the Baskerville legend appears to be based on the hounds Sir Hugo himself released rather than on what actually killed him.
(EDIT: I just watched the first ten minutes again last night, and I did not recall correctly: the film does seem to indicate that Sir Hugo succumbed to an attack by a "hound of hell." However, this scene illustrates a legend that Dr. Mortimer is reading to Holmes and Watson, so it may not be entirely factual/veridical. If not, then the answer I gave still seems plausible.)
2. Probably a combination of (a) dramatic effect (his dramatic reappearance shows how unexpectedly formidable an opponent he is, and deigning to take even the slightest notice of them as foes would spoil the effect) and (b) leaving Stapleton enough rope to hang himself (I suspect he wants to catch Stapleton in the act of trying to kill Sir Henry).
3. They probably wouldn't try if Holmes and Watson were there; the idea was to get them out of the way. However, it's also just barely possible that Cecile would have slipped off with Sir Henry in any case, or that they'd have tried to lure him out onto the moor in some other way. For all we know, maybe they would simply have killed Holmes and Watson (or tried to).
Cushing and Morell are certainly two of my favorites in the roles. In particular, I think Cushing captures Holmes's somewhat brittle nature much better than even Jeremy Brett does (Brett overdoes it and does it at the wrong times), and Morell's Watson is the sturdy, reliable companion of the stories every bit as much as Burke's and Hardwicke's.
But there are things I appreciate about other Holmes/Watson actors. For example, at the other end of the spectrum, I enjoy the 1950s TV series with Ronald Howard and Howard Marion-Crawford. The series is definitely "Holmes lite" and the stories themselves are fairly trivial (and sometimes "noncanonical"), but I enjoy the chemistry and humor of the two leads and I think Howard makes an excellent Holmes.
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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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