It is likely to be a permissions problem. You check like this:

# usual syntax
chmod 755, $old or die "Can't chmod $old because: $!\n";

# or using the syntax you have and skipping the 
# useless $cnt temporary variable
if (chmod 0755, $old) {
    print "changed file permissions for $old<BR>";
}
else {
    print "cannot change file perms for $old<BR>System says $!<BR>";
}
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Whenever you do a system call command (open, opendir, unlink, rename, chdir, chmod, etc) the actual error is in $! so it is easy to find what fails how. You are not checking your open's by the way - this is a sure path to frustration. You should always open files like this:

open FILE, $file or die "Can't open $file for reading, Perl says $!\n"
+;
[download]

cheers

tachyon

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