"Permission Denied" error for root user when perms are 0775?

[R. G. Newbury]

Weird problem.
I downloaded an svn version of mythtv, cd'd to the folder, and tried to 
run './configure --help', Got a 'Permission Denied' error.

I am root and the permissions were and are 0775...chmod changes nothing, 
even trying 0777.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on? The directory is on a 'rw' 
partition, since I just downloaded to it, using a script. But the 
configure script itself will not run. I changed the first line from:
#!/bin/sh    to #!/bin/bash  > no change.

And bash *is* in /bin and executable, owned by root.

I'm stumped....

Geoff