Blood and Lace (1971) d. Philip Gilbert (USA)
After her loose-morals mother is brutally murdered in bed with an, ahem, customer, 17-year-old Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) becomes a ward of the state and is sent to live at Deere Youth Home, an orphanage run by the stern and strange Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) with assistance from resident slimeball handyman Tom Kredge (Len Lesser). There is concern on the part of detective Calvin Carruthers (Vic Tayback) that the claw-hammer killer may still be after Ellie, fearing that she might have witnessed the crime, but one gets the impression that our local dick may have a more prurient interest than simply preventing future criminal behavior. And speaking of crime, we quickly learn that Mrs Deere isn't above torturing and killing her underage residents, holding them on ice to keep the government checks rolling in!
