Ironclads (1991)

Virginia Madsen is Betty Stuart, a lovely young Southern aristocrat. Her family owns slaves, but time in a northern finishing school has turned her into an abolitionist.

She now spies for the North, sending messages through the lines with the help of a slave girl named Opal.

And the North needs her now more than ever. Because rumors are abound that the South has turned a former Union ship, The Merrimack, into an ironclad capable of busting the northern blockade.

But Betty doesn’t know a lot about ships. Leslie Harmon (Reed Diamond) does. And the Union Army figures to pressure him into spying as well.

Harmon was supposed to blow up the dry docks as Gosport, Va., before the Union Army abandoned them. But he decided not to do so, fearful that debris would kill friends he’d made during two years stationed there.

Now naval Commander Smith (E.G. Marshal) gives him an option: Death for disobeying orders, or a fake escape and a chance to head South, where he’s being hailed as a hero.

Of course, if he chooses the latter, he’ll really be trying to get as much information on the Merrimack as possible and smuggle it back north with Betty’s help.

Meanwhile, the federal government has commissioned an engineer named John Ericsson to build the Union Navy its own ironclad, The Monitor.

All goes well until Betty discovers that the Confederate officer she loves, Catesby Jones (Alex Hyde-White) has been named second-in-charge on the Merrimack, the very vessel she’s planning to help the North destroy.

Virginia Madsen as Betty Stuart, embroiled in a plan to counter the Confederate ironclad in Ironclads (1991)

Alex Hyde-White as Catesby Jones, the Southern officer Betty hopes to marry in Ironclads (1991)

Review:

The good folks at TNT made several TV movies based on historical events and figures from the West and the Civil War in the 1980s and 1990 and here take on task of sharing the story of the first ironclad ships.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, rather than focus on the South’s desperate attempts to break the Northern blockade, or on the Northern personalities racing to match the Southern ironclad with one of their own, this turned into a romance novel version of The Merrimack vs. The Monitor.

So we have the lovely Madsen romancing a Union naval officer, talking marriage with the Confederate ordinance officer she truly loves and wrapping the Northern spy around her finger all at the same time while slipping messages North in the sole of a slave girl’s shoes.

All of which lands her in a cell. But, hey, she notices, it’s a pretty nice cell. It even has a big window. When she finally glances out that window at the slave girl’s urging, she notices the gallows.

The film is salvaged somewhat by the battle between the ironclads. But, remember, it ended as something of a draw, so even that comes off as rather tame.

IMDb reports that the ships we see in the film where third-scale models of the real thing., with the battle filmed in the big tank at Pinewood Studios, England.

Reed Diamond as Leslie Harmon, the young navyman who might be able to spy his way out of trouble in Ironclads (1991)

Kevin O’Rourke as Lt. Joe Smith Jr., the Union naval officer Betty is involved with in Ironclads (1991)

Directed by:
Delbert Mann

Cast:
Virginia Madsen … Betty Stuart
Alex Hyde-White … Catesby Jones
Reed Diamond … Leslie Harmon
Philip Casnoff … Lt. Guilford
E.G. Marshall … Commander Smith
Fritz Weaver … John Ericsson
Leon B. Stevens … Capt. Buchanan
Kevin O’Rourke … Lt. Joe Smith Jr.
Joanne Dorian … Blossom
Beatrice Bush … Opal
Conrad McLaren … Gideon Welles
Burt Edwards … Edwin M. Stanton
James Getty … Abraham Lincoln
Phil Whiteway … Commander Davis
Carl Jackson … Cletus

Runtime: 94 min.

Philip Casnoff as Lt. Guilford, a Rebel officer in charge of testing the Merrimack in Ironclads (1991)

E.G. Marshall as Commander Smith, the Union officer who cooks up the spy mission in Ironclads (1991)

Memorable lines:

Union officer: “Mr. Secretary, before we commit funds and manpower to such an untested idea, how do we know the South is building an iron ship?”
Secretary: “The rumors are thick as Mississippi mud.”

Catesby Jones to Betty Stuart: “There’s no alligator in Alabama half as pretty as you.”

Lt. Joe Smith Jr.: “Men, coming toward us is the great Confederate bug-a-boo. It’s supposed to scare us out of our wits. They’ve covered it with iron plates. They forgot, iron can’t float.”

Betty Stuart: “They couldn’t be planning anything horrible for me or they wouldn’t have given me this nice room with this big fine window.”
Opal: “Well, maybe you ain’t looked out that fine window yet.”
She does, to see a gallows.

Opal to Betty: “The Lord, he giveth. And the Lord, he taketh away. But you ain’t the Lord.”

Lt. Guilford: “It’d be a bitter thing to die for a lost cause.”
Betty Stuart: “Well, if I have to, I hope you’ll be as nice about it as you were for that boy (who hanged) today.”
Lt. Guilford: “Don’t count on it. He was a soldier fighting for his side. You’re a traitor to yours.”

Leon B. Stevens as Capt. Franklin Buchanan, commander of the Merrimack in Ironclads (1991)

Beatrice Rush as Opal, the slave woman smuggling secrets north in the sole of her shoe in Ironclads (1991)

Carl Jackson as Cletus, Opal’s husband and a slave helping Betty spy in Ironclads (1991)

Fritz Weaver as John Ericsson, the engineer who designs The Monitor for the Union Army in Ironclads (1991)

James Getty as Abraham Lincoln, making a point with the engineer Ericsson in Ironclads (1991)

Virginia Madsen as Betty Stuart, a lover with a confession to make in Ironclads (1991)