"Tom! You, Tom! Tom Sawyer!" Thousands of eager-eyed, freckle-faced American boys have marveled at the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as they captured enemy galleons, rescued beautiful princesses, and fought against Captain Kidd's pirates in the muddy waters of the Mississippi. From the life story of Mark Twain, author of these juvenile classics, Warner Brothers has made a faithful biographical movie.

Frederic March plays the title role with the fury, the languor, and the sly wit of the original Twain. If the story fails to hold one's interest all the way through, it is not because of the acting but rather because of the slowness of the last half hour's plot. Alexis Smith, stripped of all glamour and dressed in the old-fashioned clothes in which a flatchested, anemic young girl and a 19th century Hedy Lamarr would look identical, turns in a sentimental performance as Mrs. Twain, whose job it is to control her impetuous husband and give him the incentive to continue writing his "funny books."

As soon as Twain's courtship is over with binding effects, the movie's pace slows down. The remainder is a dull exposition of business failures and literary successes. Twain's life is highly romanticized and, of course, through the magic of movies, on his lecture hours abroad, he is perfectly understood by Chinese, Indians, and Africans alike.

You've probably seen most of Twain's witticisms in the Render's Digest and know his boyhood adventures by dint of having read "Tom Sawyer"; nevertheless "The Adventures of Mark Twain" is a worthwhile evening's entertainment.

There's only one way to take, "Take It Big." That's to laugh it off as another hopeless conglomeration of songs, danced and gags with no rhyme or reason and very few laughs.

Jack Haley, Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard get mixed up with a Dude Ranch and try to make the place a financial success. Amid bucking bronchos and strutting cowgirls, Haley and his hapless friends go through the usual routine of a grade B filler, avoiding new twists and good jokes like the plague.

The only good thing about "Take It Big" is the sight of some of the best wild steers ever to invade a rodeo. But if you're not interested in bareback riding, steer milking and the like, arrange to come in when the main feature is on.