Mel Dinelli originally adapted Ray Bradbury's short story for the radio series Suspense. When he wrote the teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he based it off his radio play, rather than the original short story.
At the time this was made (1956), Charles Bronson was relatively unknown with a handful of film appearances behind him (often credited under his birth name of Buchinsky) and mostly as a supporting actor in B movies and TV shows. Claude Rains however was an established film and theatre star with a career going back decades.