They can't clap.

Or shuffle cards or play with a Rubik's Cube. But there is little else that can't be done by Hollywood's one-handed characters.

Screenwriters have made a habit of creating characters sans a hand. Who could forget movie villains like Captain Hook, Enter the Dragon's Shih Kien (who had more arm attachments than a Dremmel multi- tool), James Bond super-thug Tee Hee, and the one-armed man (no arm, no hand) from The Fugitive? What characters have made you laugh harder than Young Frankenstein's Inspector Kemp or Peter Sellers' brilliant performance as Dr. Strangelove (Rough Cut also counts Dr. Strangelove, because he had "lost" control of his hand. Work with us).

More importantly, there are the heroes.

Bruce Campbell stars as a chainsaw-toting hero in the cult classics Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. Nicolas Cage's breakthrough performance was as the five-fingered blacksmith Ronny Cammereri in Moonstruck.

Oh, and there's that Luke Skywalker guy, too.

They are some of the most memorable super-villains, action stars, comic relief figures and romantic leads in the history of movie-making. One-handedness has inspired fear, laughter and predisposed underdogs.

But why?

"I think it shows the human side of a hero, his vulnerability," says Bruce Campbell from the Evil Dead trilogy. "I mean, you always watch the good guys getting beat up and knocked around but they always get up. When your hero loses a hand, something that will never heal, you think 'Hey, this guy might not make it.' "

Evil Dead writer/director Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi, who co-wrote Army of Darkness, couldn't agree more. "The character Ash is a one-handed hero in a world of two-handed disbelievers," says Ivan. "We just wanted to show that our hero was serious about this monster fighting business," adds Sam. "So we strapped a chainsaw to his hand and turned him into a bad-ass monster fighter of the decade, motoring their [undead] butts to Funkytown." The Raimi brothers are currently writing Evil Dead 4.

Star Wars guru Kevin Anderson explained the pragmatic side of losing a hand. "If you watch something like what Bruce Willis goes through in Die Hard, you basically see a character who is Superman without the Kryponite. Who wants to see that?"

Anderson, who now writes the Star Wars novels, the young Jedi Knight series and a historical Star Wars comic book series called The Golden age of Sith, sees a hand as one of the only acceptable losses. "Sure, everyone knows that Luke (Skywalker) losing his hand and getting a droid hand is symbolic of Luke becoming like his father," Anderson says. "But, if you think about it, it's one of the only doable injuries that are permanent. Your character can still do action--sometimes his performance is even enhanced."

Beyond the realm of heroics and chivalry, one can't deny the comic possibilities of the missing paw either. Albeit low-brow and often in bad taste, audiences have always responded to the cheap hand gag. This summer, Woody Harrelson starred as Roy Munson in KingPin, a story about a bowling prodigy who loses his hand and his self-respect. Prosthetic hand jokes include the following: nail through hand, awkward handshakes, hand in car door, dog chewing on hand, hand caught in bowling ball and hand accidentally thrown into the audience.

The recent video release Happy Gilmore, was a bit more subtle. Carl Weathers lends a supporting hand by playing Adam Sandler's one-handed golf instructor. Weather's right arm mysteriously gets longer and longer, while his wooden hand takes a beating that would make Rocky Balboa cringe.

"With the villains, the act of losing a hand, it's a lessening of humanity," says Dr. Michael J. Bugeja, a journalism professor at Ohio University. "Compare it to Star Trek: the Next Generation and the Borg [the subject of Star Trek: First Contact, out this fall]. In essence, they are a ship full of high-tech Captain Hooks."

One cannot ignore the impact of the one-handed villain when considering films either. While a hero may find himself more vulnerable and human with the loss of a hand, the bad guys use the lost hand to inspire his/her coldness and treachery.

The classic case being Captain Hook, originally created in J.M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan. "Often, in films what replaces the hand holds great symbolism." says Bugeja. "(Captain Hook) replacing the hand with a hook, for instance. Hook wants to hook Peter Pan in and take away what makes him special, his energy and humanity."

Such symbolism can be found in many places. In Live and Let Die, Tee Hee uses his hook to try and take James Bond's invincibility. In both The Fugitive and Romeo is Bleeding, the loss of an arm seems to further a character's descent into evil. Another good example is the little-seen Body Parts, starring Jeff Fahey as a man who loses part of his arm and has it replaced by that of a serial killer. His character isn't whole, and the alien arm insists on doing sinister things.

From evil-doers to do-gooders, there are as many reasons for one- handed characters as there are parts in films. Perhaps it's just coincidence. Or practicality.

Bugeja Of course, all of this might not be quite so complicated.

Says Ivan Raimi: "It's just cool to have something other than a hand, like a chainsaw or a hook. Something you can kick major ass with."

Characters who have lost their hands to alligators:

1. Captain Hook, Peter Pan

2. Tee Hee, Live and Let Die

3. Chubbs (Carl Weathers), Happy Gilmore

After talking to Dr. Bugeja about the monomyth, I decided to test it.

1. In KingPin, a young boy is taught to bowl by his father (spring). He becomes a celebrated junior bowler (summer) until a corrupt veteran on the circuit convinces him to hustle for money (fall). The result is the loss of his bowling hand and his future as a star (winter). When he meet an Amish bowler and a sexy con woman, he finds the strength to rejoin the circuit (resurrection).

2. How about this one: Obi-Won Kenobi realizes Luke's future as a Jedi (spring) and, eventually leads him to Yoda, where he learns to use his gifts (summer). Darth Vader and Lando Calrissian set up Luke to fight Vader (fall), and Luke loses his hand in the battle (winter). He gets a robotic hand and continues to train, finally realizing his power and future (resurrection).