While not being an adaptation of the play "Im Weißen Rössl" (The White Horse Inn) by Eric Charell and Hans Müller, there are many references to the famous operetta:
- the plot of both is set around a hotel at Lake Wolfgangsee in Austria
- the actual play is references by name due to the grand piano that is claimed to be played by Ralph Benatzki, the main composer of the play
- Patrick is often singing or whistling the main theme of the operetta, also the score of the movie resembles this song very closely.
- When Alexander meets Patrick he greets him with "Ah, a new face. You are the new cook?" the same way, as Dr. Otto Siedler meets Leopold Brandmeyer by saying: "Ah, a new face. You are the new waiter?"
- An angry businessman from Berlin appears as a character
- A photo of Emperor Franz Joseph I (who is a side character in the play) is shown on the wall, also a man is sitting next to him in a similar pose
- The actual Hotel "The White Horse Inn" in St. Wolfgang is shown and the owner, the "Rösslwirt", appears as a character
- At the grand opening of the hotel, before Semino Rossi appears, the Austrian tune "O, du mein Österreich" is played. The same tune is played before Emperor Franz Joseph I arrives in "The White Horse Inn".
- A big guest appears at the end that causes a lot of attention, in the play it is Emperor Franz Joseph I, in the movie it is singer Semino Rossi, who later gives love advise to a woman who is in love, in the play it is Josepha Vogelhuber, in the movie it is Claudia.
Additionally the Austrian Television ORF, that also produced this movie, released a faithful adaptation of the original play
Im weissen Rössl (2008).
