As he half-leans, half-sits on a cabinet ledge, he plays with her feelings for him, threatening and coaxing, saying, "You have so much potential, my sweet. But you're no good to me if you can't do as you're told. I don't know. . . . Maybe I made a mistake with you." Michael Easton says these lines with a perfect mixture of coaxing, tenderness, and threat, depicting Caleb's complete psychological control over Gabby. Reduced to utter abjection because of her emotional enslavement to him, she urges, "Let me make it up to you. I'll do anything you ask." He has her pleading to do his bidding. Finally, after testing and taunting her a bit more, he tells her he'll give her one more chance. The expression on his face as he kisses her hands and gazes at her with his ravenous, mesmerizing eyes is one of total sexual mastery. In the same tone as one would use when addressing a chastised yet now eagerly servile pet, Caleb calls Gabby his "good girl" and condescendingly bestows his token gift of affection. He makes her beg for him as an addict would for a drug, and each fix brings diminishing returns of fulfillment. We are left wondering whether Gabby ever really gets the reward she craves--erotic satisfaction with this man who callously uses her for his own ends. Yet, as Michael Easton portrays his character, cruel and manipulative though Caleb is, he has a sexual magnetism and sensual allure that few could resist. We, just like Gabby, yearn to be under Caleb's command. We, too, crave the sensations Caleb arouses and the carnal awareness he provides.
As he does with Gabby, Caleb also evokes and stokes Livvie's desire for him. Although he is as enchanted by her as she later is by him, he still teases and toys with her emotions to wear down her futile resistance to his charms.
For example, in one of the early Tainted Love scenes, Livvie visits Caleb's cave and confides to Caleb that she immediately thought of him when Gabby was describing her handsome, mesmerizing mystery man. As Livvie hints at her latent feelings for Caleb, he coaxes the truth from her lips, getting her to reveal the intensity of her attraction to him. Caleb gazes at her with complete attentiveness, and as Michael Easton perceptively interprets this scene, we see Caleb's subtle psychological manipulation of Livvie's emotions. As she explains how Gabby described her lover, Caleb says, "and you thought of me," giving her another one of his totally attentive looks. When the scene ends, Livvie is sexually frustrated because he won't take her then unless she gives him her whole self. Saying "I'll accept
nothing less than all of you, body and soul, a complete surrender," he has her transfixed, already his in heart and desire. His gaze is now more assured, his expression just as tender but more dominating since he is sending her home wanting more; as always here, Caleb is the sexual tease, the manipulator of lust.
Although a manipulator, Caleb, as Michael Easton eloquently conveys, is also a vulnerable romantic, doomed by his love for Livvie. With her, he lets down his guard. He holds nothing back, even his tears of love and need. The first time Caleb sees Livvie in the woods, it is clear, from Michael Easton's evocative depiction, that Caleb is totally smitten with Livvie. As he gazes at her, stricken mute and motionless by her beauty and the sense that she is his beloved Olivia reborn, his expression is one of wonder, awe, and feral incomprehension. When Caleb brings Livvie to the Villa for the first time, Michael Easton
reveals the softer, sweeter side of Caleb as he tentatively, almost shyly, seeks to please and win over his beloved. Whereas the dark, earthy mystery of the cave symbolizes the unconscious and our animal desires, the light, airy Villa represents the romantic, caring, and gentlemanly aspects of Caleb, his more civilized, refined sensibility. This is the house he creates for his Olivia, a lovely, delicate home catering to her tastes. With her here, Caleb behaves somewhat like an innocent schoolboy trying to woo someone loved from afar. A heartwrenchingly beautiful moment in Tainted Love that vividly expresses Caleb's vulnerability as well as his wildness takes place after he is supposedly attacked by "Father Michael" and drags his wounded body to Livvie to be healed. As he tells her only she can restore him, he looks at her with sadness, desperate need, and yearning urgency. The subsequent scene of Caleb biting Livvie for the first time, her sighs of ecstasy, and their passionate blood-bound embrace is one of the most magically erotic moments I have ever witnessed on screen. Their lovemaking is sacramental and intoxicating, a synthesis of wild exhilaration and tantalizingly tender sensuality. |
