In Lewis Gilbert's Alfie (1966), which catapulted Michael Caine to international stardom, his working-class character beds numerous women from all walks of life. In Joseph Mankiewicz's Sleuth (1973), which then confirmed Caine's status as one of Britain's most significant cinema actors, his workingclass hero seduces the wife of a wealthy aristocrat. This chapter will show how both films engage even more overtly with the theme of class identity and its importance in personal and sexual relations than either The Italian Job (Collinson, 1969) or Get Carter (Hodges, 1971). Alfie suggests that his girlfriend gives their son away for adoption, because only a rich woman could ‘dress him handsome’ and teach him how to ‘talk proper’. Milo in Sleuth, however, already knows how to dress and talk to win the heart of a classy woman, since his father worked hard to pay for his education in a second-rate public school. However, as his aristocratic opponent played by Sir Laurence Olivier makes him acutely aware, pretending to be something is not the same as being it, since ‘qualities that breeding brings can't be acquired’ – an attribute echoed by the film's casting, which adds an extra layer of irony to the film's conflict.

In 2004 and 2007, respectively, Alfie (Shyer) and Sleuth (Branagh) were remade with a surprising twist, as both featured the same actor – Jude Law. The result was a fascinating transformation of both films. Not only did elements of class and gender come up for re-appraisal, but a more complex interconnection between all four films was established through Caine and Law's on- and off-screen relationship. This extended across the films into new elements of seriality, in a way similar to the current trend in ‘legacyquels’ where ‘beloved aging stars reprise classic roles and pass the torch to younger successors’ (Singer 2015), with Caine now appearing opposite Law in the remake of Sleuth.

Linda Hutcheon writes that sequels are about ‘never wanting a story to end’, whereas remakes are about ‘wanting to retell the same story over and over in different ways’ (2006: 9). But, as the case of Alfie and Sleuth will show, the difference between sequels and remakes is often blurry.