Calling a C program from a Python Script

[Brad Tilley]

Is it possible to write a file open, then read program in C and then 
call the C program from a Python script like this:

for root, files, dirs in os.walk(path)
     for f in files:
         try:
             EXECUTE_C_PROGRAM

If possible, how much faster would this be over a pure Python solution?

Thank you,

Brad