A polarizable ionic interaction model for AlCl3 and FeCl3, constructed from potentials similar to those used for a variety of ionic halides by simply scaling the cation radius, is found to give a semi-quantitative account of the structural and dynamical properties of the liquid and solid phases of AlCl3 and FeCl3. This indicates that the "covalent'' interactions responsible for the remarkable, quasi-molecular nature of these two liquids are contained within the ionic model.