[Note: This was Toland""s only career Oscar, although his acclaimed, deep-focus film echnique was also nominated in classics such asLes Miserables (1935),Dead End (1937),Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939),The Long Voyage Home (1940), andCitizen Kane (1941).The film brought in $533.3 million (domestically) and $1,004.6 million (or over $1 billion) worldwide, with a production budget of $185 million.BackgroundThe Crowd(1928) is a genuine, immortal, timeless American silent film masterpiece from director King Vidor, whose earlier big WWI epicThe Big Parade (1925)had been a major box-office hit for MGM studios.They always hold their meetings in the mansion because, as Cobb astutely points out: "Why do mice go where there""s cheese?" The board""s spokesman is Douglas (Edwin Maxwell) and to Deeds"" surprise, he has been elected to preside as the director, or chairman of the opera house.The nihilistic film is best known for the shocking, misogynous scene of facial disfigurement, when a pretty gangster moll has a pot of scalding coffee callously tossed into her face by her abusive, enraged and disgruntled boyfriend (Lee Marvin).