Midnight Commander: what does a * in front of file names mean?

From mc(1) manual:

type

displays a one character wide type field. This character is similar to what is displayed by ls with the -F flag - * for executable files, / for directories, @ for links, = for sockets, - for character devices, + for block devices, | for pipes, ~ for symbolic links to directories and ! for stale symlinks (links that point nowhere).

As stated in the manual, * signifies files with executable bit set