Corion, Below is the code I ran.

#!C:/PERL/bin/perl.exe  -w

use strict;

    my $file = 'c:/Steep/USA Data/State/KY/KY2.gif';

    print "Checking '$file'\n";
    if( -e $file ) {
    
        system "dir $file";
        my $mtime= (stat($file))[9];
        print "Mtime: $mtime\n";
        print "As string: " . localtime($mtime);

    } else {
        print "File '$file' does not exist, skipping\n";
      }

    $file = 'c:/usr/www/steepusa/stage/KY/KY2.gif';

    print "\n\r\n\rChecking '$file'\n";
    if( -e $file ) {
    
        system "dir $file";
        my $mtime= (stat($file))[9];
        print "Mtime: $mtime\n";
        print "As string: " . localtime($mtime);

    } else {
        print "File '$file' does not exist, skipping\n";
      }
[download]

The output follows.

Checking 'c:/Steep/USA Data/State/KY/KY2.gif'
Parameter format not correct - "Steep"
Mtime: 1415235120
As string: Wed Nov  5 19:52:00 2014

Checking 'c:/usr/www/steepusa/stage/KY/KY2.gif'
Invalid switch - "usr"
Mtime: 1415235120
As string: Wed Nov  5 19:52:00 2014

The system command doesn't seem to like the file name as I've formed it.